[Leica] A Day in May 40 Years Ago

[Peter Klein]

Wow, Aram, those images bring back memories! I remember vividly the 
approach of the ash cloud, appearing to boil and bubble downward, and 
the ersatz sunset light on the horizon. And the dusty, never-ending mess 
for weeks afterwards. Thanks for posting. I put my memories into another 
post, along with a newspaper article I wrote about the experience.

I crossed the state a couple of weeks later. Rt. 2 was clear, so I went 
to Seattle that way. Then it rained, and I-90 was opened. So I traveled 
through the hardest hit areas, Moses Lake to Ritzville. Unbelievable. 
Twenty-foot piles of ash bulldozed in parking lots like after a 
blizzard. Everything appearing like a black-and-white photograph with an 
occasional splash of muted color.

--Peter


Aram wrote:
 > The 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.  I can hardly
 > believe so much time has elapsed.  We lived in the small (pop 1100) 
town of
 > Odessa in Eastern Washington at the time.  I was actually on a camera 
club
 > field trip with the town doctor, pharmacist, and postmaster to Idaho and
 > Canada.  We were in Nelson BC when we heard of the eruption earlier 
that day
 > and had to drive back through some harrowing conditions the last 40 
miles or
 > so.  I have included two images of the ash cloud at about 1:30 PM on the
 > 18th that I did not take, since I was 300 hundred miles away.
 >
 > The start here:
 > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/AM/Darkness+from+ash-4.jpg.html
 >
 > The cleanup took weeks.  The first day no one quite knew what to do.  
Was it
 > safe to be outside?  The news media did not have too much 
information.  Some
 > of the photo kind of remind me of what we are going through now with 
this
 > virus thing.  Masks were in order and our little town quickly ran 
out.  My
 > parents in Seattle sent us some that we got as soon as mail started  up
 > again.  Our first order of business was to dig out snow shovels and 
wheel
 > barrows and shovel the ash off the lawns, drives and sidewalks.  The 
on the
 > next day we discovered we needed to do the roofs, too, so had to 
repeat the
 > lawns etc.  It was like snow that did not go away.  We were beat by 
about
 > day 6.  Not sure how many roofs I did for folks that could not manage 
it.
 > Then the National Guard came and we were glad to see them.
 >
 > Enjoy the photos.  I have many more but don't want to bore you too much.
 > Comments welcome.
 >
 > Aram