I was born on May 12, 1980. On May 18, 1980 Mount St Helens erupted in the south-western portion of Washington state. Occasionally when the subject of my birth or the eruption was brought up in conversation, my mother would try to link the two together. Maybe it was because I was a really big baby or maybe just because she wanted me to feel special, but on several occasions she suggested a cause and effect scenario between my birth and the devastating eruption of Mount St. Helens.
“You were such a big boy; you caused a volcano to erupt!”
“You sure made your presence known, a volcano erupted to welcome you into the world.”
“Out came Bret, and next thing you know, the state of Washington is covered in volcanic ash!”
I remember getting pretty excited about the idea, how it would be a pretty cool thing to equate with my birth. However, at the same time, I could never get over the fact that it was six days after my birth. I could never really come up with a logical reason for the earth to take six days to herald my coming. So over time Mount St. Helens stopped having any real significance to me.
I guess it goes to show how important six days can be. As it was, I was born on May 12th and I’ve grown up to be Bret Runestad, awkward comedian. Six days later and I would have been Bret Runestad, DESTROYER OF WORLDS!
If I had been born on May 16th, I would have been a traveling wrench salesmen. That’s a story for another time.