Scott Sala has been hearing that Mount Saint Helens in Washington State may erupt again, and remembers what it was like after the 1980 eruption in his hometown of Spokane, Washington:

Later, at home, I standing outside watching it rain ash. For hours and hours that ash came down. Dad was careful enough to give us those little white dust masks when we went outside - usually to shovel the driveway in some bizarre summer recast of winter's most horrid routine.

The disaster was almost cool to live through, not really being that dangerous, and breaking up the monotony of daily routine. TV became fun to watch, conversation was exciting and dirt was suddenly valuable. We bottled up that ash and still have it packed away somewhere.

Back then, I used to read the minor league baseball standings and scores religiously, and I remember the scoreboard entry the next day for the Pacific Coast League game that was to have been played at Spokane: "ppd. volcanic ash".