On Saturday, Nov. 9, shortly after 11 a. m. CST, an earth shaking event occured in the center of North America. Several million people who had never felt a real earthquake received a small sample of what this natural disaster can be like in the many c ountries that have experienced quakes of major proprotion in recent times.

McLeansboro had the doubtful distinction of being only about 30 miles from the center of the quake. The Times-Leader wishes that it had the space to print the reactions of all the citizens, but since it doesn't, we shall assume that the following vari ous statements represent the feelings of most people.

The First Methodist Church was probably the most heavily damaged building in McLeansboro. It's pastor, Rev Roy Cole, was given prioity on speaking privileges.

Rev. Cole said he was at home in the kitchen, reading a newspaper. He didn't know what was happening at first. He thought it might be his son David jumping up and down with his boots on.

"I jumped up," said Rev. Cole, "but I couldn't get going. I was immobilized. Then I though the furnace had blown up. When I went outside I saw the chimney ready to topple over and I know what it was. Then a neighbor of the church called and said par t of the church had fallen."

Rev. Cole reported that services were resurected at the church on Wednsday, Nov. 13, after the debris had been cleaned up. Church will be held from now on at the regular times.

Carey Perry, one of the owners of Food Mart, said, "It was a shock. I was just leaving for lunch and had got three or four feet from the register when I heard cans and bottles falling from the shelves. I thought it was the furnace. I expected to see a big hole in the floor, and then it dawned on me. We tried to get everyone out of the store.

It took 15 to 20 minutes to get the aisles cleared. We put every thing in baskets and took it to the back of the store until we had time to put it away. We had things like meal, flour, starch, instant coffee and other breakable items to clean up, " I was still pretty shaky late in the everning. W were very fortunate."

Harold Kittinger was working at the Suntone factory along with two other men, Stan Williams and Deon Allardin. "Stan Williams and I were hanging a heater. Baskets were stacked loose and started shaking. Stan's eyes got big as teacups and I know mine did too. We both started running for the opposite doors but had to pass each other. He was carrying a cup of coffee and you know what happened. We collided and I got coffee all over me. Deon thought an 1100 gallon tank of water had dropped. He ran out too. None of us remember how we got off the truck dock. I though that the old building would collapse, and it has so much metal in it. I don't car to tell anyone I was frightened. But I wasn't shaking in my shoes. My shoes were moving."

Velma Slim as at home making up her bed. "The whole house began to tremble. Things began to fall off a shelf in the bathroom into the tub. I thought the furnace had blown up or a gas plant in town. I ran to my next door neighbor's and they had the same kind of time I did. I thought my whole house was coming down. I was very frightened. It was frightening to all of us who hadn't experienced a earthquake before. A lady visiting in my Sunday School class was from the west coast and she said she was used to them."

"I talked to Elza Tucker, janitor of the courthouse, and he said it took him three hours to clean up the courthouse. Plaster fell. The top floor, the courtroom, received much more dramage than the first floor or basement."

Jane (Mrs. Tom) Bessen: "We escaped it. We were in a car on our way to Evansville and didn't know about it until we got there. We later found we had a couple of vases broken at home."

Harold Skinner said his wife Jean, also escaped it. She and two of the children were in the car on their way to Benton. Harold was at home taking car of two of the children.

"I thought it was the furnace. From all I've talked to this is what most people though. But I didn't know I had only tow children at home. I thought the older girl was upstairs instead of Jean, and I kept calling to her to come down and get out of t he house. Our 8 year old was scared but didn't cry."

Grace (Mrs. Neal) Standerfer: "I was just scared to death. My husband and I were in the house. The venetian shades began to shake one way, then another. When that awful blast came, he grabbed me and we ran outside. Things were falling and breaking in the house. I said to him, 'This is it'. I thought the world had come to an end. Outside, wires were moving. There was no wind. The ground was quivering under our feet. I was so scared. I didn't know I was scared."

Rev. Denzil Clark said he was visiting a friend in town, sitting in his kitchen. The friend said he thought it was a jet. They both went outside and looked.

"I talked to a girl from Mt Vernon who said people there panicked and became hysterical."

Rev. Clark spoke so calmly that we asked him if he actually were calm.

He replied, "I wasn't excited. My philosophy is "Prepafe for the worst and hope for the best.' Let's take the second coming of Christ. I'm not anxious for it to happen, but we know it will. Earthquakes are one of the fulfilments of the second coming. We need to be in a state of preparation.

"We can't help but let our emotions get our of hand sometimes. I've seen reactions of the front lines of the battlefield in World War II. When the commanders were afraid of losing equipment, they would send in the soldiers on foot. I've seen some go in praying, some crying, some drunk. There is always a diversity of reactions.

"Once I made a study of the second coming. I got quite a record of earthquakes. Maybe some of that knowledge has helped my personal understanding. It is my personal feeling that the more knowledge we acquire the less fear we have. We never know when it will occur."

June Jackson: "I was sitting in the doctor's office with a painful back. The woman next to me had a sprained ankle. The office was about half full. When the shaking started my first thought was that it was an earthquake. We didn't move immediately. We sat and stared at one another for awhile, wondering what to do. I didn't know how long we sat.

"The woman with the sprained ankle said, 'I think someone has dropped a bomb on us.' Neat sentences didn't form in my mind, but the general feeling I had was one o great sadness that maybe it hadn't been an earthquake after all, and that we would all h ave to die off like sprayed flies.

"Then suddenly, without thinking of the pain, we all got up except one man and hurried out to the sidewalk, where, if the bricks had been falling, we surely would have been hit. I don't remember the philosophyof the man who stayed inside.

"We soon went back in. The nurse turned on a radio and we began to hear news bulletins."