Thirty years ago today...

[RocketMan]

...the first significant earthquake occurred in the series that announced Mt. St. Helens was reawakening from her 123 years of inactivity.  We all know what happened later on May 18.
Were any of you around the area at that time?  Did anyone get to see Mt. St. Helens erupting over the next few months?
I was working at KPTV-12 in Portland, OR, that Sunday morning when the mountain popped the big one.  It was just myself and one other engineer getting the station up and running that morning.  We had a great view from the roof of the studio looking to the northeast from downtown Stumptown.
It was interesting coming out of work over the next few months, usually at zero-dark-thirty, only to find mud on my car, and more falling from the sky.  Very weird, in a cool sort of way.

Linky
A more interesting linky

[geronimotwo]

went there 15 years after.  still can't imagine the amount of energy needed to flatten trees 10 miles away.  the tv reports never did it justice.

[MillCreek]

I was a junior at the UW in Seattle, and from the plaza in front of the chemistry building, you could see the smoke/ash plume as clear as day.  A very impressive sight. 

[CNYCacher]

I was 7 days old.

[Tallpine]

I was in Colorado.

As I remember, there was a hurricane or something going on in the southeast, and the volcano in Washington at the same.  I was in the middle, blue spring skies and no sign of anything wrong in the world.

[coppertales]

I flew into Seattle the fall before the mountain blew up.  I also flew into Seattle the fall after the mountain blew up.  Both days were clear and sunny and the mountain was real pretty the first time, and not so pretty the second time.  My Mom gave me a jar of ash, which I still have.  My brother was going to college in eastern Washington and really got hit with the ash fallout.  My Dad was playing golf the day it blew and they heard it go.....chris3

[41magsnub]

I was 4.  I distinctly remember that day because they wouldn't let us outside to play at daycare and it was raining ash like snow.  This was in Billings, MT.

[AZRedhawk44]

I was just shy of 2 years old when it blew, living in Gresham, OR.  Just outside Portland.

I don't remember it at all, though.

[Mabs2]

So you're saying that after 123 years of being cool, she suddenly goes PMS and gets pissed of at everyone for no reason?

Women.

[RocketMan]

So you're saying that after 123 years of being cool, she suddenly goes PMS and gets pissed of at everyone for no reason?

That's pretty much it.  Have you ever considered a career as a vulcanologist, Mabs? 

[Mabs2]

That's pretty much it.  Have you ever considered a career as a vulcanologist, Mabs? 

I've considered careers in many fields, but no employer in any field has considered giving me a career.
Maybe I should go into politics, seems like a no brainer.

[HankB]

I was living in MN, fresh on my first post-college job, when it blew. No effects there . . . but much discussion about the fate of one Harry Truman, a stubborn old codger who refused to leave his home near Spirit Lake when warned about the pending eruption. Having lived there a good portion of his life, he just KNEW it wouldn't blow . . . he just KNEW it.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, it goes to show that it's not the things we don't know that get us in trouble, it's the things we know for sure that just ain't so.