1980 Was, Like so Many Years After

1980 was, like so many years after and before it, a year full of great and small tragedies, of hope deflated and grief overwhelming. Two weeks before the year started, Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" topped the charts, and stayed there well into the new year. The Wall would become a sort of sign for the times, and for the almost surreal year that would follow. This would be the year that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and after learning that the U.S.

Boxing team had been killed in a plane crash, the American President responded by forbidding all American athletes to compete in the summer Olympics. 1980 would be the year that America sent in troops to save our hostages in Teheran -- only to accidentally kill so many of our own soldiers, through sheer ineptitude and poor planning, that we had to retreat without being fired upon once.

1980 was the year that Saddam Hussein took charge of Iraq, and invaded Iran, while America puzzled which side of that war to come in on, eventually supported Hussein -- despite the fact that he still kept our hostages. This was the year that Mount Saint Helens erupted, and the American populace responded by electing Ronald Reagan, the first movie star to become president.

(Well, perhaps those two events weren't precisely related, but it's hard to tell what actually inspires people to vote the way they do) Certainly, picking out three moments to focus on isn't easy, but the flip of a coin suggests that the most important events of 1980 were those that seemed the most absurd -- Mt. St. Helens blowing her top, American soldiers colliding in the air over Iraq, America's withdrawal from the Olympics, and the tragic murder of John Lennon. The volcano blew on May 18.

She was a kind mountain; she gave warning. As early as March 20 there had been tremblings, the first being an earthquake that measured 4 on the Richter scale. Steam was pouring out of fissures in her surface by March 27th, and in April the entire mountain began to be malshaped, obviously under pressure. Then, on May 18th, a massive earthquake destroyed the entire northern side of the mountain, and lava poured out, covering more than 200 miles! Additionally, huge ash plumes exploded into the sky, blackening out the sun.

The power of the eruption is said to be equal to thousands of atomic bombs. Such a volcano might not have seemed been so notable in history, except that it happened in America, where every event is swallowed whole by the media. About 200 homes were flattened or burned to a crisp, and a little under 5 dozen people were killed. The effect on the landscape.