Once upon a time, when Oma was in college, there was a volcano named “Mt. St. Helens. Can you say ‘mount saint helens?’” Good job.
Yep, this is dirt from outside. We’re going to make a volcano with it. I know it’s dirty; listen to my story, ok? We’ll wash your hands pretty soon.
Well that old volcano, Mt. St. Helens, began to rumble. It rumbled and shook with earth quakes a lot of times, so scientists said, “Look out, everybody! Mt. St. Helens is going to erupt!” Oma thought that was very interesting, but she wasn’t worried. She lived in a town named Ellensburg, and Ellensburg was a long, long way from Mt. St. Helens.
Yes, that’s right –some volcanoes have fire coming out of them when they erupt, but Mt. St. Helens is not that kind of volcano. Shhh — I’ll tell you what happened, so listen. Everybody can make this pile of dirt into a mountain while I tell the story, okay?
Since this story happened on a Sunday, Oma woke up and got dressed to go to church. Outside the clouds were thick and dark. Oma thought, “Uh-oh, it looks like rain today.” But, when she walked to her car, she did not feel any raindrops. In fact, the weather was warm and stuffy, even though the sky was getting darker and darker.
Let’s make a hole in the top of our dirt volcano. Yep, just a little one.
Inside the church building, Oma heard people talking about the volcano. They said that Mt. St. Helens had erupted — with a very loud ka boom! The whole top of the mountain had blown off! Pouring out of the crater was a gigantic cloud of ashes! The ashes were blowing right towards the town where Oma lived! Oma was glad to be with her church friends.
After just a little while, a nice deputy sheriff came inside the church, and said, “Excuse me, everybody. Please go home now and stay in your houses. There is a lot of ash falling on our town!” So, everybody did as the deputy said and left quickly for their homes.
When Oma hurried outside, she saw that gray ash was falling from the sky, ashes covered the road, and her little blue car was coated in warm, gray ashes.
Okay, let’s take turns putting some baking soda inside our dirt volcano’s crater. Just a little spoonful each! Do you think we can make our pretend Mt. St. Helens erupt? I think so. Next, we’re going to pour a bit of vinegar and dish soap inside the crater. Just a little bit for each but let’s be quick! Okay, that’s good. Look! What’s happening?
Oma drove her car very slowly on the ashy streets, because ash is smooth and slippery when it covers the roads. When she arrived at her apartment, she parked her car and ran to her door. Before going inside, Oma shook her hair and her jacket and stomped her feet to get the ashes off. Then, she slammed her door to keep the ashes outside and turned on her TV. She wanted to watch the volcano news.
Shall we make our volcano erupt again? Okay. Let’s take turns…one at a time…Moses! What’s the matter, buddy? Girls, don’t scoop his mud please. Play with your own mud.
For the rest of that very long day, and for many days after the volcano erupted, Oma stayed in her apartment, all by herself. When she had to go outside for groceries, she wore a face mask so she wouldn’t breathe the ashes.
Finally, the roads were safe enough for Oma to drive her little blue car across the Cascade mountains to her other home where she lived when she wasn’t in college. She was happy to be out of Ellensburg, because the skies at home were blue and the air was clean to breathe. Oma remembers the Mt. St. Helens story very well, even though it happened forty years ago.
Okay, so besides “V” for volcano, do you know what else starts with Letter V? Yup, vegetables. Let’s go plant some pumpkin seeds, shall we? We’ll have to stay in the house, though, because it’s raining outside today.
Yep, you can take your pumpkin seeds home. Tell your mommies to put them on the patio and when they’re grown, you can plant them outside!
Let’s go eat some vegetables for lunch, shall we? And then we can make Opa’s Special Donuts!
