Steelers Country

I was a woman on a mission today in Pittsburgh.  I was just traveling through between Pennsylvania and Indiana.  It was the return trip on a wonderful and long vacation.  My son, though, was weary from the traveling we'd already accomplished in the past weeks and so his patience for staying in his confined space was stretching thin.  Someone had lent us a car DVD player, but he'd already watched the movies of interest three or more times, and the 5+ movies he hadn't watched, he refused to let me even put in the DVD player.  He was sure he wouldn't like them based on their covers--he did NOT want an animal movie.  (The majority of children's movies are animal movies I've recently realized, much to my disappointment.)  A brilliant friend suggested finding a movie at a Red Box in Pittsburgh while we were there, and bringing it on the road with us to help pass the hours go come.

And so, I was on a mission. The first Red Box, on my way to the Turnpike, didn't seem to be working properly and was absolutely useless to a person actually wanting to rent a DVD.  But, I was determined to make the ride more pleasant for everyone by getting my son a new movie.  So, I trudged inside and waited in line, just to ask the cashier where I could find another Red Box nearby.  Of course, this one was miles down the road.  Was it worth going out of my way, and possibly getting lost?  With a whimpering son in the car, yes, I decided it was worth it.

So, after a couple of wrong turns, I found the other Red Box....that had seemingly fewer choices (though, with the benefit of being able to actually rent the one I picked).  At last!  We were ready to complete our journey.  First I just had to figure out how to get to the Turnpike.

And suddenly, my eyes were opened.  I know my Pittsburgh-ian friend had noted earlier in the morning that there was a Steelers game today, but it was an unimportant, passing, comment as far as I was concerned.   Yet now, as I looked around me in the Giant Eagle parking lot, I realized something I hadn't before: I was in Steelers Country.  I'd heard the phrase before, but it made me chuckle.  This time, it felt like a real place.  It wasn't an idea; it was an actual place.

The somewhat "elderly" couple who I asked for directions were fully outfitted in coordinating Steelers coats.  And, when the woman came closer to my car, I realized that she had completed her ensemble with pumpkin earrings that had the Steelers logo in the center.

Everywhere I looked were shirts, hats, coats, flags, signs, painted cars....

I had this urge to hop out of the car and start following people around with a notepad.  My anthropology side came out like a lion and I wanted to do an ethnography of Steelers Country.  Too bad that couldn't really happen for oh so many reasons.

But I did leave Pittsburgh with the sense that there was something big going on there that couldn't be explained by just a football game.  A way of living that was somewhat foreign to me...but intriguing all the same.