The Daily Babble

Okay, Really the Last Time

Can't help it---a quarter of a million people showed up to welcome the Steelers home to Pittsburgh. That's more than 2/3 of the city's actual population.

How could I not add these photos? The Steelers represent the heart of Pittsburgh, the will to keep on going in tough times, a celebration of its unique character, and the moments of victory that come into almost every life, at least once in awhile. It's very important to know how to celebrate them.

Same day as all this happened, the more exact TV ratings showed that except for the final episode of M*A*S*H, this Sunday's Super Bowl was the most watched television program in history in the U.S.


The other night I wrote a long post on the Super Bowl night celebrations---in the South Side, where I used to work and live; in Oakland, where I taught and hung out; downtown, where I went to meetings, movies, plays, concerts, festivals, etc. And how I watched the Super Bowl alone. Then somehow the post got eaten in cyberspace, only a fragment of it survived, and I was too tired to go through composing it again.

I've since talked with my two best friends from high school and on through today. Mike's son, who I thought might have had the clout to get game tickets, decided to spend Bowl day in Pittsburgh. He drove up from Washington, found a South Side bar, and a few of his friends drove up later to join him. They were among the hundreds out on Carson Street that night.
I told Mike I'd felt left out being this far away. He reminded me that at our age, we were probably better off. It's true--although I'd love a moment of euphoric release, I doubt Carson Street would have offered more than a little, before the aggravations became stronger.

Clayton, with whom I watched the last Steelers Super Bowl win 26 years ago, watched at home with his son, and his daughter and her husband who were visiting. He told them to enjoy it, because it might not happen again for a long time. He told me that he was happy but realized that the Steelers winning was not life and death for him anymore, as it had been back then. Maybe because you didn't die after they lost, I suggested, and still had to live your life after they won.

The three of us are friends---we were once the Crosscurrents, after all. Mike and Clayton had talked on the phone a few days before. We've been talking about the three of us getting together, spending a few days in a cabin somewhere, for so long it's become a joke. But now as both of them are planning retirement, Clayton brought it up again. It may even happen. Whether the Steelers win again or not.

We talked about old times, their children and Mike's grandchildren, and all that stuff, even politics (Lynn Swann, the likely R. candidate for governor, was master of ceremonies for the Steelers celebration, so the D. governor Ed Rendell stayed in a nearby building after riding in the motorcade with the Mayor. Mike suggested this might make Swann governor---if he could get Jerome Bettis to run with him as Lt. Gov.)

But of course, we also talked football. Steelers football. Past, present and to come.