Where were you? (3)

Eruption of Mount St. Helen's - May 18, 1980

It was a Sunday afternoon and the Hunk and I were scheduled to be married the next Saturday. He and his brothers decided to go to an air show at Fairchild Air Force Base. About the time they got to Coeur d'Alene, they heard on the radio that the Air Show had been cancelled. They were really miffed. "Why would they cancel the air show at the last minute?" they fumed.

From the west, a large dark cloud began to sweep across the sky. It was similar to a storm cloud, but very dark. Then they heard on the radio that Mt. St. Helen's had erupted. "Wow, was that cloud from the volcano?" Interestingly, they had the Hunk's super 8 movie camera, and decided to take some movies to document what was happening. The western sky dark was as a starless night, and the eastern sky was still daylight.

They decided to turn around and drive home, but stopped briefly at the edge of Coeur d'Alene Lake and take some more movies. Then they drove back over the Fourth of July pass to the Silver Valley.

In the meantime, I was home and heard about the eruption on the television. Everyone was told to stay indoors. (No one knew at that time, whether or not the ash would be toxic and it was heading our way.) I was really scared about my groom and hoped they would not be caught in the fallout. The Hunk arrived at my house before the cloud of ash began to fall. We drove to his mom's place in Kellogg, and he dug out his industrial respirator - just in case.

Soon the ash started falling in Kellogg. He put on his respirator and went outside to take some movies of the ash falling onto the cars. I didn't want him to go out - but you know men - they love danger! Unfortunately, he ran out of film, and couldn't take any more movies that day.

Soon the news report said the ash wasn't toxic, but it would be harmful to car air filters, and to reduce the amount of driving you needed to do. The ash kept falling for several hours. We ended up with about 2 inches all over. (Further south in Idaho, they had to deal with about 4 inches of ash all over.)

The ash hung in the air like ground fog. It was eery. When cars drove down the street, it kicked up into the air again. And now, we had a delemma. Our rings and the tuxes were in Coeur d'Alene - 30+ miles to the west. The marriage licence was in Wallace - 12+ miles to the east. Some of our attendants were from out of town. We had to travel - or postpone our wedding.

Besides all of this, I discovered I was allergic to the ash. I couldn't breathe in it. I went to the doctor for anti-biotics, as the ash had irritated my throat and lungs and I had a sinus infection. So, the Hunk did most of the traveling, and checked his air filter frequently to make sure it wasn't clogged. I stayed in as much as possible, and wore mask-like filter to keep the ash out of my nose, throat and lungs. (I looked so cute ----HA!)

On Saturday morning, May 24th, I was still wearing the mask outdoors. I had to get ready for the wedding at home, then finish up at the church. My mom or dad took a short movie clip of me with wet hair and the "mask" on. It was sooo embarrassing! At least I wouldn't have to wear the mask at the wedding ceremony since it was indoors.

Someone took a picture of us after the ceremony, standing by the Hunks pickup. The hills were covered with grey ash. It almost looked like a dusting of grey snow.