May 18th 1980

I was at 38835 NE Washougal River Road.
Sheltered by mountains and the direction of the blast from the noise. Only got a dusting of ash.
Wish I had been on top of silver star mountain to watch. 8 1/2 years old.

Funny thing I distinctly remember being at school when it blew. But it blew on Sunday.. so much for distinct memories..
 
nwbobber said:
I was digging clams in Seaside, we went up to a donut shop for some coffee and a lady was in there hysterically going on about I-5 being wiped out and Vancouver was gone. I and my folks lived in Vancouver at the time so I figured I would head that way and see what was up. The view heading towards the Longview bridge was incredible. Wall of ash from the floor to the ceiling and from the mountain west as far as you could see. Amazing.
Two weeks before that a few guys and I took some rafts down the Toutle. Glad I got to see that beautiful green water before it turned gray.
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I too was also digging razor clams, but at copalis beach. The 4 of us stopped at what I believe was the Green lantern tavern nearby after the dig and saw it on the news. I too had made a spring trip to the Toutle and had spent a rainy night at the weyhauser campground which was totally destroyed without a trace.
 
Rob Allen said:
I was at 38835 NE Washougal River Road.
Sheltered by mountains and the direction of the blast from the noise. Only got a dusting of ash.
Wish I had been on top of silver star mountain to watch. 8 1/2 years old.

Funny thing I distinctly remember being at school when it blew. But it blew on Sunday.. so much for distinct memories..
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It had subsequent eruptions long afterwards, that’s probably what happened when you remembered being in school.
 
I was still in school at Michigan State. And then I got a summer job with Oregon State University (School of Oceanography) and got to participate on a research cruise from Coos Bay, OR to Westport, WA.
 
We were in church in Prosser. Watched as the ash clouds formed and head east turning day into dark as night. Drove across Satus Pass and down the gorge to PDX. Stopped in The Dallas to clear ash from the air filter in our van.
 
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Driving down hiway 512 with the family.

This spring i tossed out my jars of ash after storing/moving that stuff for all these years.
My wife asked why i was keeping it?
I said it was "history" and realized its actually worthless to me and In the trash it went.
 
Sound asleep in Orchards forty-ish miles from the Mountain. A couple of months prior, just before they closed the red zone, a HS buddy and I drove his Datsun pickup up logging roads to the last ridge on the SW side. Was cool to see a puff of ash and steam from 4 miles away, but not the brightest idea in retrospect.
 
I was a college senior in West Virginia. I had just accepted a job offer from Boeing, and would be moving to Seattle in six weeks. I kept thinking, to myself, "What have I done?"

Turns out, I had made a great decision ... :cool:
 
I was a teenager living at home in West Seattle. I remember hearing the news on the radio. Running downstairs to tell my parents. I think they already knew they were on the back patio looking south at the ash plume. I recall them telling me that was the ash, and I wasn't bright enough to distinguish the plume from the clouds. It was all ho hum.

A few months later when the Mountain was having it's smaller eruptions I remember on a crystal clear afternoon watching the mountain belch one of its ash clouds. That was cool.
 
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I was living in the hills east of Machias, off of Carlson road. Never heard the boom. Was told to watch tv. Saw it all happening there. Only one time did we ever get a dusting from the Mountain.
 
Packing for a day of smallmouth fishing near Patterson. Heard the eruption but didn't understand what it was until hours later when someone stopped and told us. We could see the ash cloud but assumed it was a storm.
 
Running a country bar in Montana. Before we heard the news, thought we were looking at storm clouds. Put extra filtration on my truck and put in a lot of time washing ash off my place and my Mom's over the next week or so.
 
Coach Potter said:
I was fishing with my dad and grandma on Spirit Lake. I was only 5 and don’t remember much beyond the ash falling like snow.
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Good one! A different Spirit Lake. As it happens, I have a photo taken by a friend the summer before the blast of my wife, daughters, and I in my canoe on Spirit Lake with the taller Mt. St. Helens as the background. A nostalgic photo because I really loved that place before the mountain blew.
 
Me and my 10 year old little brother were driving to a fishing hole near Mossyrock, WA when it happened. We didn't hear a thing, but we came around a corner and, whoa. Pretty impressive. Stuck around behind the lines all day. It was quite a show.

I went back a couple years ago to try and figure out where we were at when we first saw the eruption. I think we had just crossed the water on Harmony Road, heading toward town.
 
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Lopez Island. I was sleeping off a hangover from the night before. Something woke me up. Wasn’t sure what I had heard so while trying to find coffee I turned on the radio and heard Helen had blown up.
 
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