May, 1980 was the last time I wore a mask. I had flown to Oregon to visit relatives. Mount St. Helens had erupted a week or two before I got there. I was staying with my Grandma Bake and my Aunt Buffy and Uncle John invited me to go to a movie. They picked me up at my Grandma Bake’s house and we put on masks and drove to the movie theater. There was a grey dust on everything. You could run your fingers over a car and you would leave a line through the ash. Some where, I think I have a picture of it.
My Grandma Bake got me a necklace that had ash in it from the volcano. I still have it. Where were you when Mount St. Helens erupted? What do you remember? I will add the stories here.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/revisiting-the-1980-eruption-of-mount-st-helens/
Elizabeth Michels shared a story:
Mom (Audrey Bake) and I had gone to Seattle for the weekend. John was east of the mountains with the guys. Mom and I ended up in this motel with round beds with red velvet bed spreads and mirrors on the ceiling. We laughed so much. We both woke up, with a start, right at the time the mountain blew, but we didn’t know it had happened. Got breakfast and started home. Drove down I-5 and near Mount St. Helens mom saw helicopters and said those are military. We finally got to Longview where we got Portland radio and heard what happened. We must have missed the I-5 shutdown by minutes. They closed the freeway as a logjam was heading down the river toward a freeway bridge. The alternate route at that point was to the coast and up Highway 30. We went to PSU to the geology center and looked up the seismic info about the eruption.
Mike was telling Colleen yesterday about the guys trip home in ash. After they got home, roads were shut down that way for a while. They saw the ash plums were heading east towards them. I think they were in Yakima.
Robert Palmer shared a story:
I was working a grave yard shift at Burns Brothers Truck Stop. Trucks started coming in with ash all over them…..40 bucks per truck to hose ’em down. $$$…..I love a good natural disaster. The China Virus doesn’t count, but I luv the covid traffic….
BAKE MENAGERIE 