I was two months old but my mother tells me stories of packing me in the car and ash falling and looking just like snow.
Sitting in my parent’s front yard in SE Portland drinking beer and watching it blow (while trying to explain to my 1 1/2 year old son sitting in a stroller next to me the dynamics of what we were watching. He didn’t seem to appreciate it........)
I was out water skiing on the Columbia, near beer can alley, on that crystal clear day where everything looks closer, when it popped its cap. Whats wild is I didn't hear a thing as close as we were, but the bloom looked like it was right in front of us, about 40K' up. Was told by a geologist that the sound went over the top of PTown but those in Salem to Seattle heard it. I know the direction of the explosion was more towards the north. What a great day of skiing with that background and the two chicks with me!
That was some crazy shit. Although we had some ash around Portland I remember driving up to northern Idaho for vacation the first of August and the mounds of ash that were piled up like snow in eastern Washington. During my vacation we even had some ash fall on the beach at Lake Pend Oreille.
ha, similar story when one of the later plumes shot into the air as we were on my boat on the Willamette in the Johns Landing area and had a great view of the plume looking north up the Willamette.
I rode with my dad and an aunt and uncle of mine out to 181st Ave & NE Halsey to watch St. Helens erupt that day. I was 15 years old at the time. It's still the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
I was at my Mom and Dad's watching it on TV. My dad rented a firehose to clear the ash off the street later.
Rafting the Hells Canyon on the Snake River. We spent a week floating the river, completely out of touch with recent events. The night before Helen blew her top we camped near the takeout. We wanted to get an early start for the long drive back to the Portland area where we all lived at the time On the drive back we were so relaxed from the vacation we never turned the radio on to hear the news. Around Walla Walla we noticed a very large dark cloud coming from Helen's direction but never realized she exploded. We drove under the cloud down I84 without a problem. While driving along Marine Drive, near the airport we had a very clear view of the mt. What a sight.
I was in high school (Clackamas High School) when it happened. We talked about it during my entire English class as my teacher was, and had family in, the Toutle area (basically ground zero). For those who don't know, Ash was everywhere. Many wore breathing masks outside for over a week. The ash made it to Montana and beyond. Here's a quick 1.5 minute video:
I was a kid, we went to Steamers on NE Sandy for Sunday brunch to celebrate my uncle's birthday, it had giant windows that faced St Helen's. Sat there and ate while watching the mountain blow. Never forget that.
My dad worked in the same office building as BLM, he got a copy of the final reports of how people died that was never released to the public. Some of it was horrific. I don't see it in google pics but who remembers the picture of the dead kid in the back of the pickup truck that the Oregonian put on the front page of the paper? The outrage was amazing.
The school district line ran thru my parent's house. What school you go to is based on the bedroom you sleep in. One bedroom in my parent's house I would have gone to Putnam, the other, Gladstone. I was a Gladiator!
I lived on Greeley & Ainsworth. I was only 3 almost 4 but I vividly remember the hazy sky, red sun, and ash EVERYWHERE. It was like snow.
