Mount Saint Helens 39th Volcano Eruption Anniversary

This May 18, 2019 Saturday morning in Texas is reminding me of the Sunday morning of May 18, 1980.

Thirty-nine years ago.

This morning I am hearing loud booms, which I am 100% certain are not being caused by nearby Mount Wichita erupting.

A severe thunderstorm is currently raging loud at my Wichita Falls location.

This morning 39 years I was peacefully soaking in a hot tub when suddenly loud concussive booms began rattling the walls and windows.

I got out of the tub. A few minutes later the next door neighbor arrived to ask if we had heard.

Heard what, we asked?

The mountain has erupted was the answer.

There was no mystery as to what mountain had erupted. Mount St. Helens had been in active mode for months, with a large area around Mt. St. Helens with restricted access.

But, not restricted sufficiently. 57 people died in the eruption.

In the months prior to May 18, 1980 I had driven south to the north restricted zone to try and get a look at the suddenly active volcano. But that attempt to see was to no avail due to cloud cover.

That hot tub I was soaking in when Mount Saint Helens blew up was in Mount Vernon, about 150 north of the eruption, as a crow flies.

The eruption created a bit of a panic in the Pacific Northwest, with a rush on stores to get ash masks and, if I remember right, some sort of additional air filter thing for vehicles.

The initial eruption sent ash to the east, not north. One of the subsequent eruptions did send a small amount of ash as far north as the Skagit Valley. I do not remember ever feeling the need to use the ash mask I had ready to use.

Hard to believe that BIG BOOM was 39 years ago. Seems so recent in my memory.

Below is a Mount St. Helens video tribute to Pacific Northwest legend, Harry Truman. According to the video the song was a #1 hit. I do not remember this, but at that point in time I likely was not paying any attention to such things as what might be a #1 hit.

But listening to the Harry Truman Your Spirit Lake Lives On song it seems real clear that this was the first of the genre which was to become known as Seattle Grunge a decade later...

On Tuesday Vote To Set The Clock Back 50 Years To A Time Of Liberal Progress

I found that which you see on the left on Facebook.

I found it to be both amusing and to make no sense.

I suppose though if one was a right wing nut job, then I guess voting Tuesday to NOT set the country back 50 years might make sense, in an ignorant sort of way.

In the November election 50 years ago my favorite Texan, Lyndon Baines Johnson, won the presidency in one of the biggest landslides in presidential election history.

Along with LBJ getting elected president, after having become president due to the unfortunate demise of John F. Kennedy, the Democrats also increased their majorities in both houses of Congress.

When LBJ assumed the presidency in 1963 he used his highly evolved political skills to pass all sorts of legislation which resulted in things like new libraries, schools, hospitals, roads. The one thing LBJ was not able to pass, until after the election of 1964, was augmenting Social Security to provide medical care for the aged. That had to wait til 1965 when LBJ began to expand his Great Society programs.

In addition to what became known as Medicare, other anti-poverty programs were expanded, along with a multi-billion dollar federal aid to education program. Civil rights bills were passed which were first proposed way back when Harry Truman was doing a good job as a Democrat president.

It was Harry Truman who, in his Fair Deal, first proposed what later became Medicare. When it came time to sign the Medicare Act into law, LBJ flew to Independence, Missouri so that Harry Truman could be present at the signing of the bill.

Expanding Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights, other social programs. That is the legacy of the election of 50 years ago.

Only the most extremist right wing nut job in 2014 would dare suggest terminating Social Security or Medicare.

Or a Rick Perry type, too dense to understand why it would be a good idea for Texas to accept the Medicare expansion concept.

So, to me, it would be a very good thing if on Tuesday America gets set back 50 years to the time when one of the greatest Texans in history did some mighty fine things for all of America. Mighty fine things a Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz and others of their limited ilk would never consider doing....

Today's 34th Anniversary Of The Mount St. Helens Eruption Has Me Feeling Homesick

This morning after I realized today marked the 34th Anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in my old home state of Washington, I blogged about this on my Washington blog in a blogging titled The 34th Anniversary of the Mount St. Helens Eruption on May 19,1980.

Thinking about the Mount St. Helens eruption which boomed over three decades ago got me feeling more melancholy than feeling even remotely nostalgic. How could anyone get nostalgic about a mountain exploding, killing a lot of people and doing a few billion dollars in property damage?

The melancholy homesick thing kicked in when I watched the YouTube video below, which I had used in an earlier blogging about Mount St. Helens and Harry Truman on my Washington blog titled Mt. St. Helens Harry Truman's Spirit Lives On.

Watch the video below and see if you can guess what makes me melancholy and homesick in addition to the woeful tone of the song.

If you guessed seeing mountains, rugged scenery and forests of tall evergreen trees you would have guessed right.....

Remembering Harry Truman The Washingtonian Not The President 30 Years After Mt. St. Helens Erupted

I am having myself a melancholy day today. Not quite sure why. I have been known to have bouts of insomnia. The past couple weeks I've been having bouts of whatever the opposite of insomnia is. Definitely different for me.

I already mentioned on this blog and at least one of my other blogs, that today is the 30th Anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.

That means it is also the 30th Anniversary of the Death of Harry Truman. Harry captured the imagination of the people of the Northwest with his stubborn refusual to leave his Lodge on Spirit Lake, way too close to the stewing Mt. St. Helens.

Harry Truman was born in 1896. Which would have made him 84 or 85 when his mountain blew up. I wonder if the same type event occurred today, if Mount Rainier or Mount Baker or any of the other Washington volcanoes decided to wake up, if the current powers that be would let a current day Harry Truman live out his life the way he wanted? Or would FEMA show up to haul him off?

I don't think FEMA existed back when Mt. St. Helens blew up. I don't recollect any huge federal help response, though the disaster was HUGE. I do recollect Jimmy Carter showing up.

Below is a video tribute to Harry Truman (I put this on my Washington Blog, liked it so much I decided to put it on my Texas blog, too), that hit me right on my melancholy mood, with the soundtrack being the #1 hit, way back when, titled "Your Spirit Lives On...."