On May 18th, 1980 - my mother and I were in our front yard. It was Sunday morning, and she was getting an early start on the yard work that day. Being 9 years old at the time, I was getting an early start on playing with my dog Chinook.

I was standing on the little slope near the Snowball tree that mom had carefully sculpted throughout the years. Chinook was rooting through the orchard grass nearby, and mom was turning on the sprinklers for the day. We were laughing about something silly, out there under the sea blue sky.

It was then that I heard *and* felt an odd sound. My first thought was that the local highschool had fired off it's cannon (usually saved for the winning touchdown at the homecoming game) for some reason. It thumped the ground beneath my feet.

"What was that?" I asked mom.

She was standing nearby with a garden hose in her hand. She was looking at me, shaking her head a little. "I'm not sure...."

We went on with our morning rituals for awhile, until I happened to glance up into the sky. Instead of the pristine blue, there was a veil of greyish lavender spreading across the horizon. It was unlike any cloud I had ever seen.

"Mom... I think something has happened...." I said, just as she looked up in the sky as well. We both dropped what we were doing and rushed into the house to turn on the TV. There had been speculation of a cataclysmic natural disaster about to strike - so in the back of my mind, I was already anticipating what we were going to see.

It was on every channel. The emergency broadcasting system was in effect. Mount St. Helens had erupted.

We had felt and heard the explosion, though we were hundreds of miles away....