In the third installment of Daymon Garrett Edward’s (pictured, inset) memoir, “Waldorf Hotel” (aka the Merwyn Hotel, which he owned from 1979 to 1980), he found a new hotel manager, Sharon, who was also a hair stylist, and he began working at the hotel salon full time.

“… I had moved into the hotel and was slowly making the fourth floor apartment habitable. … We kept adding more people to our list of long-term guests. If someone paid monthly, we had to abide by the landlord laws, if they paid nightly, then it was hotel law, and many times we were in very difficult situations …

“At that time in Astoria’s history, there were not enough motel rooms, and there was very little to offer tourists … Seaside was getting busier … and the whole city wouldn’t have a single room available. Sometimes people slept in their cars …, and Cannon Beach was out of the question, so people were pushed north to Astoria …

“All of the north-facing rooms on the fourth floor were painted, and we decorated them in themes. I had an abundance of knick-knacks and what-nots, and the Bogart Room was first, and others followed.

“We had a two-room suite, with a sitting room and bedroom with bath adjoining, the Jane Barnes/McTavish-Henry Bridal Suite, with red apples stenciled in the corners, Scott’s satirical idea of the forbidden fruit. The first guests for that room were a young couple with a child and one on the way, oh well.

“… Sunday, May 18, 1980, at 8:32 a.m., Mount St. Helens erupted; what a mess, the ash came to Astoria a few days later. (He is pictured, washing the sidewalk in front of the hotel.)

“I had planned to go to Salem with David on that Sunday to be sworn onto the Oregon State Board of Barbers and Hairdressers on Monday. … Everyone was all excited about the volcano, and that it might dam up the Columbia River, and then collapse and flood Astoria at biblical proportions.”

But Daymon was undaunted. “Hogwash,” he declared. “I was going to Salem if I had to surf on a lava flow all the way.”