Watching history from the deck

My wife, Elsie, and I had a home on Silver Lake with a view of Mount St. Helens from our deck.

On May 18, 1980, I was videotaping the lake and mountain as I often did after the first awakening on March 27.

I was about to stop, when I noticed the beginning of the eruption, and I captured the first one and one-half hours of activity of the 1980 eruption.

The copyrighted tape is entitled “Backyard Volcano” and has been seen on major TV networks and featured in the film at Sequest State Park Interpretative Center.

The view of the eruption and the ensuing activity is still a vivid memory even after 30 years.

We were evacuated from our home for six weeks and spent many days after that cleaning up the ash that rained down on our house, decks and driveway.