As you can probably imagine, the anniversary is a pretty big deal here in Portland. I didn't live here at the time (I was actually overseas) but the legacy is ever present. My husband does renovations, and even a few years ago he would still find mounds of ash in eaves and gutters. I was pretty excited back in '04 when it started erupting again. It didn't do too much (
http://vimeo.com/1054666) this time, but it was still a little scary. Even just a week ago it sent off some steam, but I think that was probably just a little glacier hitting the hotspot on the dome, and not anything really new. It's interesting living so close to a dangerously active volcano, and another one that's technically active, but hasn't done much since Europeans have been in the area. There's also possibly a new volcano forming in central Oregon (right now it's just "the bulge") that folks around Bend are a little worried about.
As a bit of a counterpoint to the link about Harry Truman -
David Johnston was the geologist who really sounded the warnings about the pending eruption, died in the eruption, and now has the visitor's center named after him.