Mukilteo Musings

Mount St. Helens

I previously wrote about my experience with the 1980 eruption last Feb. 19. You can find my story in the archives. To reprise a bit, we heard the large boom in Seattle because we were on the shore of a large body of water, Lake Washington, and we all know that water carries sound. Interestingly, Seattle did not get ash but Montana did. My Dad breathed it for a few days before he had a massive heart attack and died two months later. Needless to say, Mt. St. Helens and her ash bring up deep emotions for me.

My father-in-law, who also lived in Helena, gathered a jar of ash from his driveway that week. When he died four years ago and we were cleaning out his house, we found the jar of ash that he had kept all of these years and Lucas, my son, wanted to keep it. It seems so weird to me now that Mount St. Helens is acting up again so I found the jar of ash in my son's room.



Today, Mount St. Helens sent up a fairly good sized plume. Thousands of people headed down there over the weekend in hopes of glimpsing an eruption. I remember 1980 too well. For two months BEFORE May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens did the same type of thing: it would burp; it would steam; there'd be earthquakes; TV crews would report and then BLAMMO and 57 people died (I always whisper to myself 58 everytime I hear the reporters say this). So there is no way I'd go down there to watch close-up even though it is spectacular. When all of this settles down I do recommend a visit. Every parent in this state has taken their children to see it at one time or another; we did.