It was a lazy Sunday afternoon May 18th 1980 and I was at my in laws home.
My husband went to the grocery store with his dad and I was in the kitchen awaiting their arrival to get dinner started.
They came in the door with several brown bags and this gray-white dusty stuff fell all over the counter.
I said what is that? They said it is VOLCANIC ASH! I am like... Oh sure. Then we walked out side to see a blackish gray sky, and low and behold, the entire ground, trees, homes, cars, roads, were covered with a layer of ...VOLCANIC ASH. It was an eerie site. The quiet afternoon suddenly felt like something out of a Sci-Fi movie. As far as the eye could see, all was covered with ash. We are several hundred miles from the Volcano, so this was just crazy.
The town shut down. It was a difficult undertaking to figure out how to clean up such a ubicutous mess.
Here, there and EVRYWHERE our world looked like a black and white photograph. So odd and yet so captivating.
For several days life slowed down for all, and we did not even drive anywhere. We were on a "Manacotti" kick and made this Itailian dish 3 times that week. First that night at my inlaws, then once at our house for friends, and then again at our friends home. It was as if the whole world stopped to make this historical event. It was really something amazing to live through. The ash stayed around for years. It is really hard to clean up, and does not disepate in water, so even when we would try to hose it off it would still be there. Evetually over the years it was absorbed. However, 20 years later you could still see it along the highway. At present, I am guessing there is still some to be found.
I could ask anyone where they were, what they were doing when the ash fell and covered Spokane Wa. like a felt blanket. Most will recall instantly.
What an incredible experience, 29 years ago TODAY!
BethAnn Long ~ Spokane Realtor- Coldwell Banker Tomlinson South Inc.
509-362-4607
...there's no place like your home!
Hi BethAnn!
It must have been so strange! We drive every year to Lake Almanor. It is within about 1/2 hour of Mount Lassen. When we leave Red Bluff, we still have about an hour and a half drive to the lake. At some point about a hundred years ago, Lassen blew it's cap as well...and there are thousands of large lava boulders on that drive at least an hour from the lake (about 50 miles from Lassen)...it must have been an incredible sight as well!
Visited Mt. St, Helen's 4 years ago. What was a surprise was that the trees were still laying flat like toothpicks along the mountainside. She was puffing smoke the day we were there. The theater presentation is very dramatic- when the curtains open up to reveal the mountain as she is today, it leaves an indelible impression on the spectator.
Thanks for sharing your memories of the Mountain.
Wow!! I can't believe that was 29 years ago. Seems like yesterday.
BethAnn - Hard to believe it has been 29 years. I lived north of Vancouver, so Mt. St Helens was practically in my back yard. When we heard it had blown we got in the car and headed that way to check on family in Cougar. We made it as far as Amboy before being turned away by law enforcement. I will never forget that day, and the weeks to follow. I didn't think we would ever get out from under all that ash! :-) - Mike
Yes it was INCREDIBLE!
We were in Ellensberg visiting visiting my sister-in-law Central Washington University, it was Midnight in the middle of the day and you couldn't go outside without a wet towel or mask over your face. It was less than 90 miles from the blast as the crow flys...