So, the other day, I got to thinking about the last time the Steelers were actually in the Super Bowl. Feels like a while ago now, right? That game against the Packers. I wasn’t even thinking much about the game itself, more about what I was doing back then.
It kicked off this idea in my head. I remembered I had this specific Steelers hat I wore all the time during that season. It was my lucky hat, or so I thought back then. Suddenly, I just had to find it. Don’t know why, just felt like digging it up.
The Hunt Begins
First place I looked was the closet. Went through a bunch of old coats and stuff I haven’t worn in years. No luck there, just a lot of dust. Then I thought, maybe it’s packed away? So, next stop was the basement.
Man, the basement. It’s kind of a disaster zone down there. Boxes piled up everywhere. I started pulling them down, looking for ones marked “Winter Clothes” or just “Old Stuff”. Took me a good hour, I reckon. Sweating and everything. Found a lot of junk I’d forgotten about – old CDs, some truly questionable fashion choices from the early 2000s, even some college textbooks I swore I’d gotten rid of.
- Old concert t-shirts
- A broken mp3 player (remember those?)
- My wife’s hideous bridesmaid dress
Loads of stuff, but not the hat. I was starting to think maybe I’d tossed it out years ago during a cleaning spree. You know how it is, you get ruthless sometimes and throw stuff away you later regret.
Success? Sort of…
I was about ready to give up. Sat down on an old storage tub, feeling a bit defeated. Then I saw this one smaller box tucked way in the back, under a pile of old blankets. It wasn’t even labeled right, just had “Misc” scrawled on it.
Figured, what the heck, might as well look. Opened it up. And there it was! Well, sort of. It was the hat, alright. But man, it had seen better days. Looked faded, a bit misshapen from being crammed in there. And honestly? It looked smaller than I remembered. Or maybe my head got bigger, who knows.
Didn’t even feel like wearing it. But finding it, after all that digging? It was weirdly satisfying. Made me think about that whole season again, the excitement, hanging out with buddies watching the games. The hat wasn’t magical, it was just a hat. But the whole process of searching for it brought back a ton of memories, way more than just the Super Bowl game itself. Mostly good ones, thankfully. Didn’t change the outcome of that last Super Bowl appearance, but finding that dusty old hat was my own little win for the day.
