New Jersey is basically seismically stable but I have lived through three earthquakes here in my life. 
    The first was a tiny one in the sixties.  I was a child or young teen asleep in my bed.  For some reason I woke up at like three thirty in the morning.  I could hear a rumbling off in the distance, sounding something like a train.  It rumbled progressively closer then right through us.  Even though I'd never been in an earthquake before I knew that's what it was.  It was a small quake with no damage.
   There was another small one a few years after that but I slept through it. 
    On August 23, 2011 I was sitting at my computer desk at the crappy duplex we rented at the time.  My wife Marie was at work and daughter Kate was out somewhere.  It was about mid afternoon and I was at home with the dogs, cats, and snakes.  The unit downstairs was vacant and the landlord and his son were working in it. 
     Suddenly the whole building started violently shaking.  I thought it was something they were doing downstairs so I hollered down to them "YO! KNOCK IT OFF!"  It only took me a second to realize that my original assessment was incorrect and that we were having a pretty hefty earthquake.  Of course my first impulse was to get outside.  I was going to grab whatever pet was closest to the door and make a run for it.  Just as I was getting up to make my dash it was over.  All was quiet. 
    We had gotten hit by a 5.8 which is the biggest quake I ever felt.  There was some damage done locally but all in all it wasn't that bad. 
     That experience made me realize that I like my ground still and peaceful.  I hope I never feel anything like that again.
     Have you ever been in a moderate or big earthquake? 

https://www.nj.com/weather/2016/08/5_years_ago_big_earthquake_shook_the_ground_in_nj.html
      

Two small earthquakes.
1) I was 1 year old. After the earthquake is sensitive enough to people to be afraid, my mother took me in her arms and ran down the stairs of the building.
My memory : the staircase shook (a second jolt) and later in the street, many people who discussed.
2) I was watching TV one night, and a noise not very loud appoached. The shock wave has passed at ground level and there was a noise in a peace of furniture. It was a standing book that had fallen.
A few days later, I hold two old people explained to me that it was cold and it's possible that the thermal change has shocked the pebbles that line the bottom of the bay. And so for them, it was the cause of the earthquake !!!
For me nothing bad.

    We just had a 4.7 in New Jersey.  I was out walking Pandora and didn't feel it at all.  I think if I had been in the house I would have noticed it.