A post about the 80's? Elementary, my dear Watson! Is it possible to have a flashback to one day ago? Well, I am. Day 2 will combine "elements" from day one. We'll see how long I can keep building on this.
FIRE
Fire played an important role in the United States in the 1980's. In 1980, Mount St. Helen, located in the state of Washington, erupted, causing $2.9 billion in damages and killing 57 people. In 1980, there was also a heat wave across the Central and Southern states, costing $20 billion and causing 1,700 lives. In 1988 another heat wave and drought affected 45% of the country, at a cost of $120 billion and approximately 8,000 lives.
I know, I know, we didn't have Eucalyptus trees spontaneously combusting like in Australia, but it was still a catastrophic decade.
Meanwhile, in the 80's, British band U2 dropped their album "Unforgettable Fire", while the Australian band Midnight Oil had their hit song, "Beds are Burning". American Billy Joel responded with "We Didn't Start the Fire!". Relax Billy, the song was about giving land back to the native Pintupi, nobody was accusing us of anything. We are a touchy lot at times, aren't we?
WATER
In 1989, Hurricane Hugo devastated the East Coast, with property damages of $7 billion and a death toll of 49.
Peter Gabriel's British rock group hit the charts with the song "Red Rain", while fellow Brit Annie Lennox sang about how she "sailed the ocean and the seven seas".
The Americans tore it up in the water category of music. Guns and Roses started with some "November Rain", which must have caused "The River" Bruce Springsteen sang about, which fed into Billy Ocean's "Caribbean Queen". Unstable weather patterns caused the Scorpions (OK, their a German band, but I saw them in Philadelphia the night before I graduated from high school, so to me, their American!) to "Rock You Like a Hurricane".
All that Australia had to offer was Little River Band. :(
EARTH
The earth also rebelled against the United States. On October 17, 1989, an earthquake hit Loma Prieta, California, claiming 63 lives.
During the decade, the British rockers Duran Duran release the song "Planet Earth", and Australian bad boys AC/DC rocked the world with "Dirty Deeds", and fellow Oz Garry Gary Beers of INXS sang the song "Firma Terror". The USA only had Afrika Bambaataa (born Kevin Donovan, but doesn't have the same ring as his recording name) created the techno beat "Planet Rock".
AIR
On May 1-2, 1983, 63 tornadoes touched down in 11 states, killing 7 and causing $200 million in damages.
During the decade in music, American Bette Midler sang about a gentler "Wind Beneath My Wings", and British front man Phil Collins released his #1 hit "In the Air Tonight". Sting and the Police (from England, of course) sang their hit about a stalking voyeur "Every Breath You Take". Think about it. "Every breath you take, every move you make, I'll be watching you"? Sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tag line.
Australia dominated the category with the obvious Air Supply. Without them, no one else breathes. Quite egotistical, if you ask me.
BAMBOO
Who ever decided that the Fifth Element was bamboo??!! Oh, that's right, it was me. I guess I didn't really think that through all the way. Heat of the battle and all, you know? However, it turns out that bamboo furniture was quite the rage in the 80's! There are many auctions with "Vintage 1980's bamboo dining set", like the one pictured here:
"What about the music world? Surely he can't pull off a song from the 80's about bamboo?" Here goes. In 1981, The Tom Tom Club had a song called "Bamboo Town", and in 1988, Joe Ely had a song called "Behind the Bamboo Shade". They were both Americans. BAM! I didn't think I was going to pull it off. This war is already starting to take its toll on me.
This topic is so much easier for the Aussies, all they have to do is post about their internet, which is still from the 80's! I wonder if they were given a few days advanced notice of the topics, so they would have time to upload their posts?
Hero Standard by Colonel Hogan.
This post received a 2.3% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @swenger! For more information, click here!
Nice post bro.
@tremendospercy
nice. donate you vote
Thanks! I appreciate it.
me too
Stay the course, Colonel Hogan. Keep fighting the good fight! #teamusa
hahaha genius. Nice work man. BTW I survived hurricane hugo. I lived in NC at the time. Great post.
Thanks! During Hurricane Sandy, I was thinking about going down to Ocean City, NJ to house sit a friend of mine's place. I kind of wish I would have, it would have been an exciting experience.
Yeah, we didn't get much of Sandy here in VA, but that was a bad one. Ocean City got hit pretty hard. Better safe than sorry. We didn't know Hugo would come that far inland when I lived in Charlotte. We had trees down, power out for a week and no school!!!
lol, my mom has bamboo furniture! Good post by the way!
Thanks! I was sweating it out all afternoon on how I was going to tie that in, then I starting researching and BOOM, there it was. lol
Go teamusa,💫
I am interested in joining teamUSA. How do I go about it?
You are now officially enlisted. @yehey, please add this brave and talented recruit to the roll call. Welcome aboard, soldier, glad to have you on our team!
Many thanks
I am the official steemit Virginia ambassador for teamAustralia. Do I need to relinquish that. If so I shall happily do it. I hope to be of some use to teamUSA in the coming years.
No need to relinquish. I am ambassador for PA. After we destroy Australia in the steemwars will will need the goodwill relationships. ;)
I'm American but in Vietnam near the Panda Bamboo Heaven of China.
I am from Oregon near Mount Saint Helens.
I was born 1985 but my mom saw Helens blow up.
That had to be incredibly frightening. The closest I have come to seeing a volcano eruption is when I was in Guatemala on a missions trip and the volcano in the distance would puff and send up a plume of steam every now and then. The locals said it was getting more and more active, but nothing has happened in the three years since I was there.
I went to Helens in 2012 and it looks nice now.
Upvoted. Resteemed. Followed. I love this and I love USA. Go Steem Wars.
Feel free to join in the action. You don't have to actually live in the US to be part of @teamusa.
Well, I'm thoroughly impressed at your theme continuation!