Local Dispatch: Pittsburgh's sports rival Vermont's weather in small-talk sweepstakes
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There is a cultural element to small talk. My husband claims he doesn't understand the context of small talk and therefore can't endure taking part in it.
I come from Vermont, a place so northern with elements so rough that talk of the weather isn't really small talk at all: It's a conversation between two (or more) people about what life will look like for each of them in the coming hours and days.
Too much rain means the hay can't be cut or harvested, and if there isn't enough hay for the animals, this means a very rough winter. A sunny week means everyone -- everyone! -- will be in the fields harvesting the hay, exhausted in the evenings and free to do nothing other than work.
A NorEasterner on the horizon means many things -- making sure there is enough coal/gas in the cellar, enough food in the freezer and an extra set of chains in the trunk of the car. I have yet to travel to a place where the weather was talked about so seriously and readily as in Vermont. By strict definition this is "small talk," but it is also an essential part of life.
In Pittsburgh, the classic small talk subject is sports, which my husband -- much as he may want to -- also can't understand.
"It's not really about sports," I told him. "It's like talking about the weather in Vermont: Pittsburgh teams are your life. If you live in Pittsburgh you either love the Steelers or Pittsburghers hate you."
That may sound terrible, but it's not about the Steelers: it's about Pittsburgh. If you live here, you root for our teams. If you don't, you don't really love Pittsburgh and you probably shouldn't be here.
Even if a Pittsburgher doesn't follow football or hockey religiously, when our teams make it to the playoffs, out come the jerseys and the Terrible Towels and the team colors and basement parties.
Why? Because we are proud of Pittsburgh, we are proud of who we are, we are proud of what Pittsburgh represents and our teams stand for all of that. The Steelers stand for everything Pittsburgh was, everything Pittsburgh has become and every warm-hearted, hard-working, upstanding citizen that lives here.
First Published February 13, 2011 10:50 am
