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By K Ammons
I was 8 years old. I remember it all as if it just happened. The earthquake was the first thing, followed by tremors. We had many friends and family who lived at the mountain and on Spirit Lake Highway.
When the mountain erupted, I remember swinging on my swing set with ash raining down. It was pouring down for many days. We couldn’t leave the house without covering our faces. We didn’t go to school for two weeks. It was hard to believe.
My aunt and uncle lived up in Toutle, and their home filled with mud, and people were going up and stealing out of homes. My aunt and uncle had anything of even small value taken, including a grandfather’s clock that my uncle had made.
There are still lava rocks around Castle Rock and Toutle. We lived on the hill in Kelso on May 18, 1980. It was hard to believe that we were so significantly affected that far from the mountain, but we hear stories of how the eruption went much, much farther.