Tom and Nelda Hickey
My wife, Nelda (Nelda Strahm “61), and I were married on June 10, 1962. Twenty-five years later, we 
celebrated our silver anniversary. We checked into the French Lick Resort in Indian
a and got a room on the sixth floor. After getting dressed for dinner, I presented Nelda with a very nice anniversary ring which she so richly deserved. It was an emotional moment, and as we stood by the window we embraced in a long kiss. All of a sudden the window started rattling and the hotel room door started pounding. As we were kissing, the floor began rolling almost like we were standing on a waterbed. We pushed apart and looked rather wild-eyed at each other. We couldn’t wait to get downstairs to see what had happened. We ran up to the desk clerk and said, “This is going to sound like a dumb question, but did we just have an earthquake?” The clerk very excitedly said, “Yes we did, it was just on the news and everything!
As it turned out, we had experienced an earthquake which measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. It was centered in southeast Illinois and had shaken several adjoining states. We were a little disappointed, of course, that it wasn’t us that had caused it.
A local television station jumped on the story and invited us to be interviewed on a news program. During the interview, the commentator asked us to kiss. When we did, the cameraman jiggled the camera back and forth. We got a lot of kidding after the airing of that news program!
Twenty-five years later, on June 10, 2012 we celebrated our 50th anniversary in Evansville, Indiana. At the reception, I retold the story and then, just before I kissed Nelda, I shouted out, “DUCK AND COVER.” However there was no earthquake this time, much to the relief of the guests in attendance.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in February 2022. Click on the underlined titles below to read other stories by Tom Hickey.
Tom, what a romantically fun story! I wish you and Nelda “earthquakes” and “fireworks” at all your anniversaries to come.
Barb:
Thanks so much for your comments.
As an aside, a few years ago, Nelda and I were standing near the coast in southern New Zealand. All of a sudden there was a 7.5 earth quake centered offshore. When the rocking and rolling stopped, we looked at the people around us and shouted, “Honest, it wasn’t us!!”
Tom