On May 18, 1980, I was 16 and living in East Wenatchee, Washington. At the time I was a junior (11th grade) in high school and managing a small apple/cherry orchard. That Sunday morning I had slept in (I did that a lot!) and awoke at about 9:00 am. I went outside and noticed that something wasn't right. The cherry trees which were in full bloom had no bees in them, eventhough it was a pleasant and calm morning. It was too calm. There were no birds to be heard nor insects to be seen. To the south I noticed a strange brown, orange color to the sky and figured there must be a forest fire in the mountains, which wasn't that unusual. At about 9:30 am my sister called and asked if I heard the news that Mt. St. Helens had erupted and they were expecting a huge ash cloud to head our way. St. Helens is about 150 miles southwest from Wenatchee.

My parents were out of town on their boat on nearby Lake Chelan. They heard the sonic boom of the eruption nearly 200 miles away.

My sister came down to the house and we decided we should try to cover our swimming pool as the sky became darker and the ash cloud came closer. I was more concerned about my apple & cherry blossoms not getting pollinated, but there was nothing I could do about that.

By noon, the cloud had completely covered our valley and small bits of ash begin falling like snow. The smell was awful, like sulphur. It was so dark that street lights came on and cars needed headlights to see. It was a fine powder that was light grey in color. About half to 3/4 inches fell in our area. Places further South were hit extremely hard with up to 6 inches of ash. I could go on and tell about more the eruption. Afterall, I'm a teacher and have to teach this stuff!! If you want any more info please let me know!

Stu Gloyn
sgloyn@esd171.webnet.edu