Where were you in May, 1980?

[Caveman Jim]

I had just returned to Florida after my ETS from the US Army in Fort Carson Colorado. I was in the national guard for the year after so I was probably up under my 78 F100, a deuce and a half or a Jeep...

Yeah well rock and roll was in full swing. I loved the radio, cassettes and concerts that abound during that time.
Huh, what's that, can you speak up...

 

[uberguy]

Was living in NW Portland, on Hoyt just of 23rd before it became an urban yuppie-zombie zone and like some others, experiencing Mt. St. Helen's rain of ash. Remember how people in public (even mannequins at the old Fredrick & Nelson Dept. Store) wearing painters masks to avoid breathing in the ash.

Remember Metro Buses outfitted with snorkel filters, because driving vehicles sucked in abrasive ash ruining many engines.

 

[SUPER X]

A local radio station is replaying Casey Kasem's American Top 40 each Sunday. Today it was for May 3, 1980 and the top hit was Blondie's "Call Me".

Time flies.

I was at the rose festival at night when it started snowing ash. I didnt know what it was . There was no text alerts or cell phones back then.

 

[Joe Link]

I wouldn't be along for another couple years

Cool thread though

 

[Dreadi]

In the womb.

 

[billstaf]

I don't remember what I was doing before May 18th, but after that day I was hosing about a ton of Mt. St. Helens volcanic ash off of everything I owned that was outside, as well as the sidewalks and driveway. We were the lucky ones here in Portland. Most of the ash cloud from St. Helens blew to the east. Portland is just SSW of St. Helens some 76 miles, so we got off pretty easy. The ash on my driveway was only about an inch or so thick. (But is was virtually EVERYWHERE).

 

[GKPrice]

it was THAT day or a day or two later, I was working an overtime shift at another fire station and watching the huge plume in the sky

 

[Rudedog]

Drilling a wildcat oil well in the Badlands of western North Dakota. A very light dusting of volcanic ash.

 

[11Charlie]

Junior high

 

[blaster1145]

Good stories. My propers to ZigZagZeke. Way to go, man!

As for myself, I was 10 years old living in John Day. It was Sunday I think because there were no cartoons on and we were home from school. My mother thought she could feel something rumbling in the ground. We all thought she was nuts until the news came on.

 

[DeanMk]

A local radio station is replaying Casey Kasem's American Top 40 each Sunday. Today it was for May 3, 1980 and the top hit was Blondie's "Call Me".

Time flies.

Right where I'm at now.
Moved back in with my mom about 10 years ago because she's gotten too old to take care of herself anymore.
….it's cheaper than an old folks home
In May of 1980 I was finishing up my junior year in high school.
A friend who'd moved to Tonasket the year before came out to visit in the early summer and I ended up going back to Tonasket with him and spent most of the rest of the summer with him.
Good times.


Dean

 

[01rednavigator]

Um, not born yet so I guess I was still in my dads sack.

 

[Timbertodd]

I was finishing up my sophomore year in high school and working for a record store in the local mall.

 

[Pete F]

I had a home in Keyport WA, but was back east working as a Health Physics Technician at Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. My friend flew back to Washington to collect ash and sell in PA. About 4 or 5 days after Mt St Helens blew, we got ash in PA. The joke was on him because there was enough ash on cars to fill many small vials. He was really bummed out.

 

[orygun]

Years after the fact a friend gave me a small jar of St. Helens' ash. I guess because there was so much of it then I never thought of saving any.

 

[DB is Here]

In middle school, I remember helping my Dad re-roof the House when St Helens blew...saw the plume from the roof. Man time flies.

 

[Mygrainman]

Only days I kinda remember are the 18th and 19th..
Spent the night hiding in a blanket fort in the basement under the pool table, and woke up to 2" of not snow on the ground....

 

[Scrammer]

Stood on Ocean Beach Hwy in front of my grandmother's home and watch the plume.
Fortunately my grandmother had the presence of mind to tell me to fill all the containers I could find with water, as Longview city water was drawn from the Cowlitz River water plant.
My cousin picked a 35lb Chinook that was suffocating in the warmed up water of the Cowlitz river.
That was an interesting time.

 

[CLT65]

Those of us that were here in the northwest will always remember that date. I was a farm kid in southern Oregon, too far away to see or hear anything but it was all we talked about for a week, and we got a little ash on the car when the wind blew it our way.

 

[DeanMk]

May 18, 1980....8am...I was half asleep, still in bed. I heard, "boomp" off in the distance and my bed shook a little.
I said to myself, something like, "There goes the mountain" and fell back asleep.
In 1990 I was working in Seattle and dating a girl from the bustling burg of Lowden and we got to talking about the day St. Helens blew.
She told me she remembers riding with her dad down the main drag of either Lowden or Walla Walla and they had to have their headlights on.
The dust was so thick it completely blocked out the sun. She said it was noon, but it was as dark as it would be at midnight.


Dean