Where were you?

[MarkMcJizzy]

May 18, 1980. Mount Saint Helens.

 

I was in Everett, getting my friend so we could go to work.

 

One large boom, and the whole house shook.

 

Found out four hours later that St. Helens was gone.

[FWF]

A bit of family history here. We were in Portland that day for my dad's 50th birthday. We were up and heading south for a day trip when we heard on the radio that St. Helens had exploded. My dad turns 80 today and on every significant birthday of his, we wonder what the mountain might do!

[markwebster]

Sue and I were getting on the Vashon Ferry to come back to Tacoma on our bicycles. She had a cast on her wrist from falling through a window, I had a cast on my foot from falling off the Knobs, 5.9, Peshastin. The ferry worker told us to stop beating each other up, and by the way, did we hear St. Helens blew up? I'd never bothered to climb it, thought it was too easy. I was saving it for when I was old.

[mneagle]

I was safely playing with Star Wars figures in Chicago. I did get a little vial of the ash from a relative, though.

[Plaidman]

I was near Beacon Rock at a family cabin. So we were close by. We could see the ash plume that evening spewing. I was surprised we did not feel anything as we were really close. We were just on the river side of Table Mountain.

Maybe not so close. Looks like 40 miles south and east.

 

 

Plaidman

 

Edited May 18, 2010 by Plaidman

[Bronco]

Slept right through the erruption but Dad loaded us three kids in the station wagon and drove down to Camas so we could scoop up bags of ash.

[sobo]

I was just embarking upon a cross-country ride from Virginia down the Atlantic Seaboard to Daytona, across the Gulf States to Houston, then up through the Grand Canyon and finally out to LA. Didn't even know it happened until I arrived out here in 1988...

 

I was still ~4 years away from my start in climbering at the time MSH went off.

[j_b]

After i heard what happened on the news, I stepped out on the street in North Seattle to watch the humongous ash cloud rising to the South.

[rocky_joe]

I wasn't even a thought at that point in time.

[stevetimetravlr]

I was asleep in bed in Ellensburg. My roommate was the morning DJ, so he had gotten up early and he called me and said "The mountain just blew, get up!" so I get up and go outside and coming across the horizon at us is the scariest looking rolling cloud I have ever seen. Billowing and rolling and black. AS it came over, it got darker and darker. The streetlights came back on, and then is started snowing ash for hours. It was so quiet, everything was muffled by the ash and no one was outside moving around after a while as the ash was so thick.

[ivan]

I was safely playing with Star Wars figures in Chicago. I did get a little vial of the ash from a relative, though.

substitute Columbia, SC for me and its the same story

[Otto]

I was climbing up the slope from Cascade Pass toward Mixup Peak with Marty Sorenson and group. We heard the boom, and saw a strange cloud down South, from the summit of Mixup.

[summitchaserCJB]

I wasn't even a thought at that point in time.

[selkirk]

I was barely walking but we lived in Bremerton at the time.

 

My dad was actually climbing the south side of The Brothers so they sat down and watched the show

Had an aunt in Pullman who very distinctly remembers the sky turning black

 

[flashclimber]

Standing in my driveway, watching a large plume of smoke coming up from the mountain. Was pissed off. It delayed my Disneyland trip by a month.

Edited May 18, 2010 by flashclimber

[MarkMcJizzy]

Boy, I'm smoking out the old fuckers with this thread

[jon]

I remember my 4th birthday party at McDonalds a few days after, it was pretty "foggy" out and people were cleaning the windows.

[G-spotter]

I did get a little vial of the ash from a relative, though.

 

hell ya except when i heard the muffled boom in west van i thought my dad had dropped the vw off the jack

[Pilchuck71]

I was 8 years old.

I was living in Woodinville in Kingsgate on the hill above town.

I remember the news stories about Harry Truman and being real sad about the "old guy with the cats".

We recieved about 1/8" of ash fall and I remember how the sky was creepy and dark.

I don't think it impacted me as much as the eruption of the neighborhood the year before though when the Super Sonics won the Championships!

 

[rmncwrtr]

I was living in Liberty Lake just east of Spokane. Heard it blew, but I was more interested in going to a school group-related BBQ that day. I remember the ash cloud coming towards us. That was really weird. The principal called and told everyone go home. The ash started to fall a little after that. My black cat was completely gray by the time he found his way home later that night. We were off school for days.

 

[MarkMcJizzy]

I was 8 years old.

I was living in Woodinville in Kingsgate on the hill above town. ...

We recieved about 1/8" of ash fall and I remember how the sky was creepy and dark.

 

 

I don't want to burst your bubble, but that didn't happen

[Pilchuck71]

 

c'mon we did get ash.

It came up to my knees......but I was only 8 so memory could be way off!

 

I am man enough to admit that McJizzy is right.

Just talked to my Mom to ask what she remembered and jog my memory.

We got enough ash to right our names on the windshield of our Monte Carlo and that was about it.

apperantly my fondness for romantic memories of my childhood has caused me to create the reality I wished for.

Damn those drugs in the nineties!

 

Cheers old guys that can actually remember!

 

Edited May 19, 2010 by Pilchuck71

[MarkMcJizzy]

I'm really sorry Pilchuck, but you were eight, and I was twenty. And I lived about two miles away.

 

We never got ash, ever.

 

And the weather that Sunday, while not immaculately perfect like the previous day, was a fine and good day, with a few high clouds

Edited May 19, 2010 by MarkMcJizzy

[denalidave]

I was in social studies class in Ogden, UT. Not exactly sure which grade I was in though.

 

Also, my youngest daughter's birthday today. Happy 5th Birthday, Lil E! Got a bit choked up when they called me during the Happy Birthday song. One of the biggest drawbacks of my spending the summer in Alaska is missing those moments back home. Gotta pay the bills though and this is an amazing place to get paid to be at.

 

 

 

[Pilchuck71]

Also, my youngest daughter's birthday today. Happy 5th Birthday, Lil E! Got a bit choked up when they called me during the Happy Birthday song.

 

Best thing on this thread so far!

Happy Birthday to your daughter!