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Too bad I was not even alive when it erupted in 1980 (I was born a month later). I'm hoping that I'll be able to hike up to crater next summer.

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Good gravy child! I was spending the night at my uncles house so I could use his car to go to my birthday party. (My parents didn't let me drive their car but he wasn't that smart). We heard huge booms and thought someone was blowing stumps on a construction site nearby.

My father had just had the boat painted, it was ruined. My brother was in Saint Helens and funny thing....they didn't hear the booms, it just went from day to night instantly. He worked the clean up crews (finding bodies).

I was there for this one, (but it probably isn't over). It was shocking to fly into Portland and hear it was going to errupt. We were quite worried we wouldn't make it home, but the docs wouldn't let Sondra fly home early. Turns out they cancelled some morning flights, but we got to fly by the dome that evening when we left. Interesting to see the chunk out of the side (on Wednesday it was a more complete dome inside of the crater).

Saint Helens was an amazing thing. To have seen the mountain in it's glory for 17 years then see it gone the next day was unreal. Seeing the devistation right afterwards was unforgettable as well. Many people died that day, really horrible traumatic deaths. The people died trying to save the idiots (they wouldn't leave the mountain). A whole lake MOVED to another site.

I'm glad this one was a little puff! I guess I've been through both of them though. I hope it's done, but I doubt it