Surviving Mt. St. Helen's in 1980

We lived in Spokane, Washington, in 1980. On May 18th, 1980 we were at an airshow at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane. In the middle of the afternoon during the airshow the sky got very dark. At first, we thought a storm was coming in.

But soon, ash began to fall from the sky. It was a very weird feeling. We had never experienced anything like that before. The roads and yards turned an ashen gray. It took days, weeks to clean up the heavy layer of the fine ash. We had to use fire hoses to clean it away. The ash got into every nook and cranny in homes and cars. (I'm sure in our lungs, too.)

We wore masks when we were outside. We used panty hose material to filter the ash from intake hoses in our car. For the most part, we tried not to drive anywhere or be outside for several days. Our children will never forget that memory. The ash was as fine as talcum powder.

Many people lost their homes and lives from this volcanic eruption.