Pittsburgh

As the saying goes: Home is where the heart is.

…but my heart has never been in Pittsburgh.

I’ve lived in Pittsburgh for the past two years while my husband is getting his MBA. At first, I was excited to live in what has been titled “the most livable city”. I knew that Pittsburgh was trying to clean up its old Steel Mill image and it would be a fun adventure to live in a new city. However, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t love this city the way all the local Pittsburghers do. I really can’t ever say that I have thought of Pittsburgh as ‘home’.

Pittsburgh has some very interesting people who live here. Culturally it is blue-collar to its core. Since the dying age of the Steel Mills, Pittsburgh hasn’t had much to attract new, young people to the city. As a result, most of the people who live here (students excluded) were born and raised in Pittsburgh, their parents have grown up in Pittsburgh, and all their family is in Pittsburgh. There are very few people who permanently relocated to Pittsburgh intentionally, or for career-related purposes.

Then, there are the crazy Pittsburgh ‘quirks’! Which, I have to admit, I thought were absolutely crazy when I came here…but some have started to grow on me. For one thing, when you go to a restaurant and order a salad…they put French fries and melted cheese on the salad!!

Talk about losing the health appeal.

Then there is the famous Pittsburgh Primanti’s sandwich. This sandwich has the regular bread, meat and cheese…but then they continue to put the fries and coleslaw on the sandwich!

Finally…there is ‘Pittsburghese’ – an entire language of slang words and phrases that belong exclusively to Pittsburghers. Here are a few for example:

**Yinz – meaning: a group of people. i.e. ‘Are yinz going to the movie tonight?’ or ‘Do yinz guys know how to do that?’

**Red Up – meaning: to clean up. i.e. ‘We have guests coming tonight so we need to red up the house’

**N’at – meaning: shortcut way to say ‘and that’. i.e. ‘For breakfast I will this n’at.’

**Buggy – meaning: shopping cart. i.e. ‘Will you get the buggy for us to put our groceries in?’

**Chipped Chopped Ham – meaning: very thinly sliced ham. i.e. ‘Do you want a pound of chipped chopped ham or sliced ham?’

**Gumband – meaning: rubber band. i.e. ‘I will use a gumband to hold this paper together’
There are many, many more. But you get the idea.

And how can you talk about Pittsburgh and not think of the Steelers? This part I actually have really enjoyed while living in this city. I have never, ever been to a place that takes more pride in a team than Pittsburgh does. They live and die by the Steelers. I have an outside sales position. Every Monday morning we have a sales meeting with all the sales people. During football season the first 20 minutes of the meeting is to discuss the Steelers game that weekend. Both men and women know every single player, every play they made, the history of all the coaches, etc. On game day, everywhere you go is a sea of Black and Gold. It is actually a lot of fun. I was able to go to two Steelers games this season and both were incredibly exciting.

I will admit: Pittsburgh hasn’t been my favorite place to live. I don’t like that it takes me 30 minutes to get to a good gym, the winters are horrible, it rains more days here than Seattle, and I live in a small and cramped $500/month apartment. However, I have found some great friendships and created some wonderful memories over the past two years. Maybe the next place we re-locate to will feel more like ‘home’. And if not, that is ok. I have had fun in the process learning of the ‘quirks’ that this city has to offer.