The late Tom Hunter of Bellingham, Washington, wrote a beautiful song about Harry Truman of Mt. St. Helens. The song is included in Linda Allen's song book "Washington Songs and Lore" (1988). It was also sung by Tom on the 5/11/03 PBS program "To The Best of Our Knowledge."

HARRY TRUMAN
(Tom Hunter) [Mt. St. Helens, 1980]

He had lived up there since 'twenty-nine,
Run a lodge and filled his time
Drinkin' whisky, raisin' cats and telling big tall tales
And now the mountain home he had
Was shaking, like the earth gone mad,
When they warned him, he said "No, I think I'll stay."

CHORUS
If the mountain goes, Then I'll go with it.
If the mountain goes, I'll go a-long
If the mountain goes, Then I'll go with it.
I'm gonna stay right here 'cause here's where I belong.

He said "The earthquake scared me bad up here,
But I've walked this mountain for fifty years
And it ain't gonna get me if the damn thing ever blows.
Besides I've got food, four weeks supply,
And whiskey, no, I'll never run dry,
I am this mountain, you can ask her, she knows."

Then on May eighteenth, Saint Helens blew
It tore the mountain right in two
With trees ripped, clouds of ash, the earth was glowing red.
As for Harry, no one knows,
He's up there still so the legend grows goes/i>
While the newspapers list him missing, presumed dead.

Now some say death's like going home
How the worst fate is to die alone,
Far from the people and the places you have known.
Maybe that's why Harry wouldn't leave,
It doesn't really matter what we believe,
Whether dead or alive old Harry's still at home.


Cheers, S. in Seattle