30 years ago today

I was a little kid watching the news with my parents when the television displayed the smoky, spewing mass that was Mt. St. Helens, the deadliest volcanic eruption in US history. I had no idea that twenty years later I’d be able to see it just about daily (from the highway when I return home from dropping Al at school or most other places when I drive facing northwest). The first time we visited Mt. St. Helens, it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen – a mountain with the top (and part of the side) blown clean off. I know it’s not the only mountain like that, but to me it was a big deal thinking about the energy and force that it took to make the mountain look like that. I’ve seen it on film many times, but seeing it up close in reality is something completely different. The most interesting thing to me, though, is how the animals and plants in the area (that was completely desolated) just go on with the business of living, like nothing happened. I’m glad that I live close enough to see the beauty of the mountain, yet far enough to make a decent getaway in case the sort of thing pictured to the right happens again.