I was in church, never heard a thing. It’s a good thing that can’t happen with Mount Rainier because that would be devastating. Boom! Be safe. https://m.youtube.com/shorts/7kG2X4vkGMs
May 18th @8:32 A.M. was sitting at the table eating Wheaties and watching morning cartoons when the ground started shaking and we heard this ungodly rumble! Ran to the front window and saw the first of the ash cloud rising off the mountain! A few seconds later, the ground really started to shake and the rumble turned into something even more terrifying, and the whole mountain seemed to disappear, and the ash cloud expanded mightily!!!! I cannot describe the sound and feeling, you had to be there to really understand, were talking end of the world kind of sights and sounds here, especially to an 10 year old kid! We were only 40 miles from the mountain when she blew, and could see everything up close and real personal, those memories are forever locked in my memory, just as vivid as the day it all happened! What a time and what an experience. I had been watching the local news coverage since the beginning, when the mountain first started rumbling and showing signs of waking up. and being as close as we were ( Having just moved to potland earlier that year) it was very fascinating and more then a little scary to experience! I remember the nightly news broadcast's as well as the daily newspaper reports with photos and all the interviews. Got a kick out of Harry Truman, the old codger who lived at the Spirit Lake and managed the lodge and camp ground, he refused to leave, and he got his wish to be on his mountain on his terms! My Family were among the very first to visit the new National Volcano Monument when the state opened it up, the East side Cold Water Ridge, back then it was all dirt road adn dozed parking area, and a very minimal wood plank trail, no fancy concrete walkways or any of that, they had just literally built it and opened it that morning. What an experience! Seeing it up close like that, in those early days before it became so commercial was really something! Growing up under the shadow of that mountain was something special, you had to be there to understand it all, to experience everything! Imagine, being a 10 year old kid, the best time of year to be outside playing with your friends, your brothers, and your dogs, except that year, we couldn't go outside, even with a face mask and goggles, it was dangerous, and you could feel it, there is nothing in this world like the feeling of fresh volcanic ash on your skin, or in your eyes, let alone it gets everywhere and into everything, I swear I still find it in old stuff we had packed away. Imagine months after, sweeping great big piles of ash off your roof and driveway, the city came through every week or so with a big bucket loader and dump trucks and hauled it all off to giant piles out side the city! I remember the first trip up the I-5 after they got the bridge open over the Tootle River ( I-5 had been closed for weeks after the eruption from the bridge getting wiped out) there was ash piles all over the place, mud that had to be dredged from the river and piled up to dry, it was crazy to see. we visited family in the Seattle area, and then took our time and went back south seeing as much as we could along the way! We had to stop every 10 to 15 miles to shake out the air cleaner on our van, Dad had wrapped a pair of Mom's pantyhose around the filter which actually helped a bunch, and we had a set of old blacksmith shop air billows we would use to clean the glass ( No Water, you would ruin your glass instantly) and all in all, it was a very memorable time! I remember for clost to 20 years, you could see very visible signs of the eruption all around the city and states, you had to know what it all looked like before May 18th, but it was obvious for a very long time, and I'm actually glad they decided to leave it as is, let history and time sort it all out rather then man changing it!
I was always worried about Mt. Rainier erupting when I lived in the PNW. That would be a big one to say the least. I wasn't alive in 1980, but my parents lived in Vancouver, WA at the time and said that they were planting tomatoes when Mt. St. Helen's erupted. They didn't realize it until relatives from Guam and Hawaii were calling them to find out if they were okay and then they noticed the ashes everywhere.
We had been stationed at Fairchild AFB - and had received orders for Ft Richardson, AK. Yes, I got stuck on an Army post, and had to live on post if I wanted govt housing. 4 years of playing with the big Army. No thanks. Thru odd timing, my DW was in Utah with family, and I was in MS getting some equipment training. at Keesler AFB. We had already shipped all our household goods and auto. Missed all of it by less than a week. Whew! We had to come back to Spokane to fly up to Alaska. Still a mess, ash everywhere.
A lot of folks don't realize just how bad the ash was in the PNW, it was everywhere, you really couldn't get rid of it, and had to learn how to work through simple tasks the rest of the world didn't have to worry about! Simple things like maintaining a garden, or washing your car, keeping your roof clear so when it rained, it didn't turn into cement and plug your down spouts. Lots of glass companies made a killing replacing windshields and other glass, you learned not to use the wipers unless it was raining pretty hard first, even then, with all the ash in the air, you still had to be careful! Dad and I stocked up our family cars/truck with water bottles, ( the big Bota Bags) and when it got bad enough, hoist a bag over the windshield and open it up to flush the ash so you could the use the wipers. Air cleaners were another big trick! You learned to take them off carefully and stuff a wet rag in the carb, then shook out the filter real good, then hosed it off with the garden hose before putting it back on the engine! Pantyhose were completely sold out, so you had to keep reusing the pair you already had! I learned to wrap one leg around the filter, tie a knot and then wrap the other leg the other way around and tie it off! That worked so good that to this day, all my off road rigs use this trick! The foam pre filters back then were not fine enough to keep the ash out, and you didn't want to tie the nylons too tight or they would open up the mesh and let the ash through, this was exactly what the old oil bath air cleaners were made for! The super trick was to spray a light oil, like a chain lube on the nylons after you wrapped them around the filter, that caught all the ash, but was a bugger to clean afterwards, about the only thing that worked was Diesel fuel, any other chemicals would eat the nylon! Man, there was ash everywhere, you would go to a restaurant and you could taste the ash in the food! Our place up at Lake Merwin still to this day, you would dig 6 inches down into the dirt and there would be two feet of frickin ash! I got buckets of it still to this day, makes a super blasting media for super fine cleaning jobs, cleans up with water and once dry, it's reusable indefinitely! Just don't breath it, it will hurt you, and you'll be hacking up clams for a month afterwards!
Rainier of course could be next. (I was being sarcastic because of folks being complacent) Lots of ways to die in the PNW too.
May 18th, older brothers birthday, Hear one of his drunkard pardnahs delivered a jug of shine? Didn't get an invite?
My granddaughter’s BD is May 17th. I was hoping for my girl to hold out one day for selfish reasons. Regardless her 1st BD was great.
