“A plague on both your houses!”
“Not my Summer place, too.”
Let’s Start Our Tour….
The New Madrid Fault [the Mighty Mississippi ‘Quake, the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the Reelfoot Rift, the New Madrid Sequence]
Jerry Lee Lewis wasn’t referencing it with his song but in the Winter of 1811-1812, around New Madrid, Missouri, there was “A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." Four major earthquakes and dozens (possibly hundreds or thousands) of aftershocks devastated the central Mississippi Valley, as it was struck by some of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history from December 16, 1811 through February 7, 1812 . For example, the San Francisco, California, earthquake of 1906 was felt 350 miles away in the middle of Nevada, whereas the New Madrid earthquake of December 1811 was felt in New York City and rang church bells in Boston, Massachusetts, 1,000 miles away. Survivors reported that the earthquakes caused cracks to open in the earth's surface, the ground to roll in visible waves, and large areas of land to sink or rise. The crew of the New Orleans (the first steamboat on the Mississippi River, which was on her maiden voyage) reported mooring to an island only to awake in the morning and find that the island had disappeared below the waters of the Mississippi River. Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. By winter's end, few houses within 250 miles of New Madrid remained undamaged. Large areas sank into the earth, fissures opened, lakes permanently drained, new lakes were formed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres . Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. But fatalities and damages were low, because the area was sparsely settled.
On January 23, 1812, a 7.8 quake rumbled the Missouri Bootheel and caused ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides and the caving-in of stream banks. But one of the most devastating was the 8.0 earthquake that struck on February 7, 1862 at New Madrid, destroying the city and damaging numerous houses in St. Louis.
This series of tremors caused permanent changes in the course of the Mississippi River, giving the illusion that it was flowing backward. Popular local lore credits the New Madrid series of earthquakes as having created Reelfoot Lake. Not to burst any bubbles but although the topography was altered and a great deal of water was deposited there, it’s a case of “close but no cigar” ; the tremors more enlarged and enhanced what already existed.
Owing to the new course of the Mississippi River, land was cut off from counties by the river and then resided on the other side of the new riverbed, on the other side of the Mississippi. The settlement of Reverie, Tennessee, in Tipton County was cut off and placed on the western bank of the Mississippi River in Arkansas.
Alongside the Tennessee/Arkansas state line, geological features still remain almost 200 years after the events, showing the former course of the Mississippi River as it was before the 1811/1812 earthquakes.
If someone doesn’t understand you or your speech pattern,
“You ain’t from around here, are you?”
If someone wants to be listened to,
“I’m serious as a heart attack.”
An unexpected arrival,
“Big as life and twice as ugly.”
Public disclosure,
“In front of God and everybody.”
An unattractive person,
“She looks like she ran through an ugly forest and hit every tree.”
or
“He looks like he’s been beat with an ugly stick.”
or
“She’s as ugly as homemade sin.”
When cautioning someone,
Women “Now don’t get your panties in a wad.”
Men “Now don’t get your shorts in a bunch.”
or
“Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”
Preparing,
“She’s fixin’ to do that.”
Quickly,
“He’d turn on you in a New York minute.”
or
“She was all over her lunch like a duck on a June bug.”
About someone not known for thought processes,
“He’s just got walkin’ around sense.”
or
“He’s the kind of guy who’d bring a knife to a gunfight.”
or
“She's as dumb as a box of rocks.”
or
“He ain’t the sharpest pencil in the box.”
or
“He’s dumb as owl shit.”
When you are really tired,
“I feel like I’ve been rode hard and put up wet.”
(If a horse is ridden hard enough to break a sweat, and is stabled without being wiped down, that horse is more likely to develop pneumonia.)
Angry,
“Lord, he was mad; fit to be tied”
or
“I’m so mad I could just spit.
or
“Stay out of her way. She’s mad as (madder than) a wet hen.”
Doing well,
“She’s sure livin’ high on the hog.”
Disagreeable,
“Sometimes he’s so bad-tempered and ornery, you don’t even want to be around him.”
Hurry,
“Skedaddle!”
or
“Move! Don't just sit there like a bump on a log.”
A long time,
“I ain’t had that since Hector was a pup.”
Final,
“It’s over. Stop beating a dead horse.”
“It's a partially eaten pork chop.”
“This has to be a fake, I mean, Elvis would never have left this much meat on a pork chop”
(Sophia's Wedding: Part 1) The Golden Girls
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