Mt. St. Helens popped her cork at 8:32 a.m. PDT on May 18th, 1980. I was working at the telephone company as an operator at the time. In fact, I plugged into the board at 8:30, just two minutes before she blew.

Bulletins went out on the radio and on television asking people to stay off the telephone lines because they were needed for emergency calls. But that didn't stop them. Within half an hour after the news went out that the mountain had erupted, the phone lines were jammed. No calls could get through.

There were about fifty operators in Unit 5 at the time, and our boards were inundated with people complaining that their calls wouldn't go through and asking for operator assistance. Almost all of these calls were in the nature of "How are things out your way, Aunt Martha?" Real crucial! Genuine emergency calls simply couldn't get through, and there was not a damned thing we could do. I think those people probably have about the same number of brain cells as the folks who want to climb up the mountainside and peer down her throat when an eruption is imminent. Or the people who walk out and examine tidal pools when the water recedes prior to the reported arrival of a tsunami.

When Mt. Baker, east of Bellingham, Washington, started rumbling and venting steam somewhat prior to Mt. St. Helens stealing Baker's thunder (so to speak), an interesting bumper sticker began to appear around Bellingham. It said, "Vote No on Mt. Baker Eruption!" Shortly thereafter, the rumbling and venting subsided.

Don Firth