May 18, 1980

As a young child of ten years at the time I can still recall this day like it was yesterday. For those of you who were not around at the time or did not grow up in The Great Pacific Northwest, this was the day of Mount St. Helens big eruption.

Prior to this day their had been months of buildup because the mountain had become very active with thousands of little earthquakes and some minor relief of ash and steam. Luck for me this volcano was some distance from my home (53 miles north of Portland, OR) but just close enough were I could get a good look at its activity from my backyard.

The interesting thing about this eruption was that it did not involve lava spilling over its top like you see in PBS documentaries, instead it was all ash. The eruption of Mount St. Helens was one huge explosion as it went from an elevation of 9,677 feet prior to the eruption down to 8,365 feet after it was all said and done.

The ash that was released by St. Helens darkened sky's all over the Northwest and I remember seeing on the news that the city of Yakima, Wa had a giant ash storm and blackout in the middle of the day . Portland also had an ash storm and it did turn on the street lamps but it was not quite as bad as the one in Yakima.

• Mt. St. Helens Eruption Photos