Ashes, Ashes
Back in 1980 (was it really that long ago?), my highschool band took a trip from Enid, Oklahoma to Portland, Oregon for the Rose Parade. We took four days to drive there and four days to drive back. I think we stayed in Portland for about 5 days. We marched in contests and a parade, spending the rest of our time sight-seeing, practicing and generally goofing off. It was a fun trip.

One Sunday in the middle of the trip, about half of us went to see a movie. When the movie was finished, the theater manager got on the stage and said he had an announcement. Mt. St. Helens had erupted!! There was no need to panic, but it was raining ashes very heavily outside. He suggested we all head "home." There was a great deal of excitement as we all exited the theater. Then my friend Julie announced that she had to go to the bathroom before we left! I told her I would stay with her, and then my boyfriend Mark, who was always the gentlemen, said he would wait for us so we wouldn't go out in the dark alone (it was dark as night!). Mark and I stood outside the bathroom for what seemed like an eternity. The theater was nearly empty by the time Julie emerged! We went outside and were surprised by the heaviness of the ash. It was like a blizzard, but if the ash got in our eyes, we could not see. It was like sand. We could not see more than a few feet in front of us, so we just started walking to the place where the buses dropped us off. We thought we would be able to hear them. We found nothing. We walked around and around, but found no bus. Finally, we decided to go back into the theater. There was one man left inside and he was waiting for a ride. We asked him if he had seen the bus, and he said he did see it leave the theater about 15 minutes before!! All we could do was wait for them to miss us! (We talked to the man and discovered his hometown was Enid and he had grown up one block from Mark!)

During the trip, we had always taken roll call before the bus would leave. This time, however, everyone was so excited about the ash they forgot! About 30 minutes down the road, the band director noticed we were missing and they turned around to get us. Meanwhile, Mark was beginning to steam! By the time the bus returned, Mark was red hot. We went out to the bus and the band director started to give us trouble for missing the bus, but Mark turned on him and dressed him down for not doing role call before leaving and for putting the lives of two young women in jeopardy! It was really all I could do not to laugh at Mark's intensity (as if our lives were really in jeopardy!), but I dared not laugh. I actually wasn't sure how the band director would react, but I have to say Mark won that battle! He was right, after all.

For the next few days we were required to wear masks and rain ponchos to keep from breathing in the ash. The ponchos just kept us "ash free." We also had to clean our instruments quite often! Thankfully we had some rain a few mornings later. It certainly was a trip to remember!