A few years ago, I went on a business trip to Pittsburgh. During the day, I was in training classes. At night, I found a few places around town to eat and have a couple of beers. There was a place that made a nice pizza and was loaded with locals and I proudly wore my Bills cap in there. I was greeted with curiosity about my hat and one fella, a die hard Steelers fan, and talked for some time. He recommended a couple of places around town to eat and we talked football with a little light hearted smack mixed in.
One of the things that I found interesting is even though many of the steel factories were shuttered, the town was going through a sort of renaissance. Small businesses were booming, young people were buying up local homes that once belonged to steel workers and fixing them up. There are lots of neighborhoods on hillsides looking down over the Three Rivers. The food was good, the people and the city itself reminded me a lot of Buffalo.
Anyway, toward the end of the week, I returned to that bar where I talked football with a Steelers fan. Ran into him again and he said he was glad I came back because he had something for me. He then disappeared into the parking lot and returned with a license plate with a Steelers logo on it...haha. I laughed and told him what am I supposed to use this for, target practice? He said no, it's just a souvenir from Pittsburgh. I accepted the gift and soon returned to my hotel room. Overall, had a good experience in Pittsburgh. The thing is, as you become older, wiser, you learn that there are good people everywhere. Even in a rival football town. Had a similar experience in Norristown, PA, not far from Philly, but that's another story...lol. Got a little long winded with this one.