I was working for Ma Bell at the time, as an operator. I had just plugged in (8:30 a.m.) and two minutes later, St. Helens blew. It had been gurgling and rumbling for some time, and it was being watched pretty carefully. Mt. Baker, in northern Washington, had done the same thing not that long before (triggering bumper stickers in Bellingham, not that far from the mountain, saying "Vote NO on Mt. Baker eruption!"). Baker finally stopped rumbling and venting steam, so it was expected (hoped) that St. Helens would do the same.

But no. At 8:32 a.m., she blew. Within a couple of minutes, the entire telephone system was jammed. Bulletins were going out over the radio and television telling people to stay off the telephones in the hope that emergency calls could get through.

The vast majority of calls were in the nature of "Wow! I'm watching it on TV! Isn't that something!?" and "How is it out your way, Aunt Martha?" People kept dialing operators, wanting emergency interrupts because they were getting what they thought were busy signals, when actually it was a similar signal, but much faster, which meant "busy circuits." Too many calls for the system to handle. Not even the operators can do anything about that, so even if it had been an emergency call, nothing could be done.

Which meant, of course, that real emergency calls couldn't get through either!

Operators are supposed to be polite to customers, but on that day, just plain rude was about the only way one could handle some people. "Look! Even if Aunt Martha is in trouble, there's nothing you can do about it anyway. So do what the emergency agencies are telling you to do and stay off the phone!"

Helluva day at Ma Bell's Skunk Works!

Don Firth