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1985: The Year In Top 40 Hits (Week 17: April 27, 1985)
Simple Minds have their moment, Sade beguiles, Bryan Adams keeps it up, and Billy Joel looks back without anger (for once)
My sister-in-law texted me this photo a few years ago right around the end of April, with the comment “Don’t you miss west Texas?” This isn’t filtered or edited, it’s just a Costco parking lot in Lubbock, swallowed up by one of our usual spring dust storms. I did not know in 1985 that the meteorological name for these storms is haboobs, from the Arabic word ḥabūb, meaning “blasting wind.” Which is probably for the best because if I had heard the word “haboob” when I was 15, I would still be giggling about it now.
These dust storms are one of my defining memories of west Texas. There were occasionally tornadoes as well, but dust storms were way more common. They were usually more an annoyance than anything else, but not always. I remember playing with my brother in our front yard when I was four or five when we noticed a large and weirdly colorful cloud that seemed to be moving toward us. As we stared at it, our parents’ car pulled into the driveway. When we pointed at the cool-looking cloud, my dad said, impressively calmly, “Get in the house.” Five minutes later, he was spread-eagled against the inside of the garage door…
