Where were you on.......

[Comshaw]

...May 18 1980?

It was a nice sunny Sunday. I was working in my yard when I heard what sounded like an explosion. I thought someone was blasting in the foothills of the Olympics. I later found out it was Mt. St. Helens blowing her top. Thank goodness I live 275 miles north of the mountain and on the leeward side of a mountain range.

Two days later I was in Moses Lake shoveling ash off the top of buildings with my National Guard unit. That far north of the mountain it was a very fine power. The first night we were there it rained and the fine gray ash turned into sticky gray glue. It was heavy as hell. We weighed it and rain soaked as it was it tipped the scales at 87 lbs. a square foot.Needless to say that caused a lot of consternation among building owners.

Late the second day our CO got a call from the hospital. It seems the hospital building was making weird groaning noises. The Co sent me and another guy over to take a look. When we climbed to the roof we found 3 feet of water on top. All the drains and down spout were clogged with ash. They evacuated the building but it took us several hours to get the drains cleared. The great part of this story is that while we're slogging around in that puddle atop the hospital trying to get the drains open, the mayor called our CO and wanted all hands to go shovel ash off the clay tennis courts owned by the city. My CO politely told him to piss off.

So, you got one? A story of having witnessed or been part of a historical event?

Let hear it.

Comshaw

 

[GinaeEvans]

I was an infant. I was likely nursing.

 

[Wings]

I wasn't born yet.

 

[julybaby04]

I was in school......

 

[killallhippies]

i was two. i was probably playing or inadvertantly torturing the dog i barely remember.

 

[fgarvb1]

I was at work that day.

 

[butters]

I wasn't born yet.

i was two. i was probably playing or inadvertantly torturing the dog i barely remember.

fuck, now i feel really old i was 21!

 

[Liar]

...May 18 1980?

On the other side of the planet, playing with LEGOs and not giving a damn.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Getting ready to graduate high school

 

[RobDownSouth]

I remember it because it was an Army Reserve weekend down at Fort Benning, GA. My unit was assigned to be "Soviet advisors" (and the local high school JROTC were "hostile indigents") and we spent Friday and Saturday nights in the woods doing probes against both Ranger and Officer Candidate School patrols (anything and everything to keep them awake and disoriented).

Sunday morning the sky was an odd red color all day...we figured someone was fucking around with colored smoke grenades. Didn't hear about the eruption until driving home!

 

[MNGuy]

Enjoying a weekend with just two weeks left in school of my senior year.

 

[islandman]

Living in Trieste.

 

[lovetoread]

I was not yet 8. I don't remember where I was.

Most likely still on Treasure Island.

 

[SuprSalor]

I was 19, serving in the Navy in Bremerton, Wa. Some friends and I actually had plans to go to the mountain that day collecting ash which we had done a few times before. Tourists and other folks would pay a couple bucks for just a pill bottle worth of the stuff. One of the guys (civilian) lived in Castle Rock and we knew logging roads to get us past the roadblocks into the "Red Zone" where the previous small eruptions had put out ash. Fortunately for us, we were all massively hung over from a party the night before and blew off the trip.. Needless to say, we were all pretty fucking shocked when we turned the news on saw what was happening.. We all would be dead..
I think the picture you have there is from the second major eruption which happened a month or so later. Was on the ship out on deck and saw the cloud and couldn't help thinking, "Holy Shit! They nuked Portland!"

 

[JohnnySavage]

I was 19, serving in the Navy in Bremerton, Wa. Some friends and I actually had plans to go to the mountain that day collecting ash which we had done a few times before. Tourists and other folks would pay a couple bucks for just a pill bottle worth of the stuff. One of the guys (civilian) lived in Castle Rock and we knew logging roads to get us past the roadblocks into the "Red Zone" where the previous small eruptions had put out ash. Fortunately for us, we were all massively hung over from a party the night before and blew off the trip.. Needless to say, we were all pretty fucking shocked when we turned the news on saw what was happening.. We all would be dead..
I think the picture you have there is from the second major eruption which happened a month or so later. Was on the ship out on deck and saw the cloud and couldn't help thinking, "Holy Shit! They nuked Portland!"

You a Boomer?

 

[SkAoUt]

On my folks sailboat tied up to a log boom in Center Bay Gambier Island (not far from Vancouver B.C.). I was 7 and my dad and I were eating a late breakfast in the cockpit. It sounded like a rifle shot in the distance. Least that's what my dad said. Turned out to be Mt. St. Helens.

 

[Wrong Element]

Working Sunday brunch, telling tasteless jokes about the eruption.

 

[dolf]

it's a textbook eruption.
i read about it in my textbook yesterday!
incredible stuff really.
the mechanics behind the monster...

 

[Mike_Oxready]

Hmmmm ... May 18th, 1980 ?

I was probably practicing inking one of my little gfs.

*reminiscing*

 

[DevilishTexan]

I happened to be fingering my first girlfriend. Well not first but first tactile taste of pussy. Lisa Regusa. Big tit Italian chica. Bad complexion but big knockers and when you're 14.....


We didn't fuck but I'd like to think she heard a boom.


I take it back. First tactile taste of pussy I was 11. Once. It was fleeting.

 

[McKenna]

I was 7 years old. The only thing I remember was that we got a whole bunch of ash on our bicycle seats from the eruption –and we lived two states east in Wyoming!

 

[Super-Surprise]

...A story of having witnessed or been part of a historical event?
Let hear it.

Comshaw

Woodstock....I was there....I ws also at this event....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX3cbFJ3lYU

 

[LillyO]

I was 5, i can still remember seeing the ash cloud. Funny I was 250 miles north and i don't think we got any ash.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

10 years old, in a Detroit grade school just itching for the start of summer vay-kay to commence in two or three weeks.

It was a different age, for real. I didn't care about much except being a kid, but those big-scale natural disasters and worldwide environmental event happenings stuck with you because they were the virtual Godzillas of the times.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Scientists gave dire warnings. People refused to leave the slopes.

I did not expect what was to happen. I was astounded by what the
cameras had caught, on film. I was stunned by the scale of destruction.
What is a single human being, when compared to such a powerful,
natural, force ?

I was not there, to feel the fear and awe. I was in Massachusetts.