I was a typical senior in 1980, staying out late on the weekends and the like. The ash falls did tend to blunt some of our nights, since my best friend didn’t want to drive his car with the ash falling.
That Sunday morning, my mom came in and woke me up, but I had been out the night before and so just rolled over and went back to sleep. I got up later and watched it from our house near 78th Street.
For the next month, riding the bus to FVHS down 78th Street gave us a great view of the eruption. The awesomeness and awareness of the loss of life stays with me. I had been camping at Spirit Lake with a church group the August before.
Another thing that stands out in my memory is when we moved over to Vancouver from Gresham the year after the tornado is that I looked at the mountain and told my brother that it would be great if the mountain erupted.
I hated having to clean out the gutters after the ash falls, and it cut some of our cruising short. A few times riding my bike, I would get ash on my clothes.
