Here is Max playing today.
I spent much of the day researching what would happen if we had to move because of Tony’s job situation. Obviously this would be less then ideal but I have looked up all the places and they are now not as scary as they once were. My life would change but not that much and honestly it wouldn’t be that bad other potentially going to closing of this house with a huge some of money. Yikes! However hopefully we will not come to that.
Today is May 18. And honestly for me this day is as big as September 11. May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens erupted. Not that big of an event for someone in New Jersey where we live now, but a HUGE event for someone living in southwest Washington, where I was living at the time. Next year Max will be one month older then me on this date then I was in 1980.
I think one of the biggest reasons it was such a big day for me is because my parents either blocked it out or don’t remember it that well. So every time I, as a wide eyed child, asked about that day, I got different answers. Finally I asked someone else in the family and I got a straight answer that seemed to fall between the tidbits that I had got from my parents.
We were fishing in a lake that is about half way between Mt Adams and Mt. St Helens to the south east of St. Helens. We had got out in the canoes with my aunt and uncle (and cousins) in their own canoe and my parents and me in another. Shortly after getting out there, someone noticed a dark “cloud” to the north. After a few seconds it occurred to them that this was Mt. St. Helens erupting and not just a “cloud”. They hurried back and my parents got their canoe loaded first and off they went, without me. My guess is they thought I was in the car. However I was probably like Max and actually playing with my cousin, oblivious to the danger. I hitch a ride with my aunt and uncle and I am told that in order to get out of the lake, they had to go towards Mt. St. Helens. They come to a T in the road and find a few cars parked at the side of the road. So my aunt and uncle stop and there is actually a photo of me with my cousins with Mt. Adams in the background taken from this spot. Strangely, like 9/11, there isn’t a cloud in the sky in this photograph. You would never know it was taken on THAT day. I guess my aunt and uncle remember a truck coming down from the direction of St. Helen’s that had a broken headlight and covered in ash. That guy rolled down his window just enough to shout “run for your lives!!” as he zoomed past. Later my aunt and uncle caught up with my parents who didn’t stop at the T in the road.
My actual memories of that time were just that there was grey “snow” all over everywhere. For some reason I remember this through the window at my babysitters house. Probably because I wanted to go outside and since I couldn’t because of the ash that is what I remember.
Now Mt. St. Helen’s is a tourist attraction. However I have NO desire to go up near it. My aunt and uncle actually were in the process of purchasing a house that had a perfect view of Mt. St. Helen’s when it blew. Clearly their view got cut short when it blew. I do remember their view though as they lived there for a number of years before moving on to other places.
Anyway, that is my May 18 and while today is always one of “those” days.
Jennifer
I love reading your memory of Mt. St. Helens as I also have very vivid memories of the eruption. I was a freshman in college at WSU when it blew…..and that same black cloud of ash hit us. It was so strange. It got pitch black in the middle of the day and the grey ash fell. The ambulance and fire trucks went around telling all of us students to stay inside. We were heading into finals week and it is one of the only times EVER that WSU made finals optional for students.