Many people who love the Buffalo Bills were moved to tears as they said goodbye to this incarnation of what is now referred to as Highmark Stadium. Not to be confused with the opening of the new stadium across the street that will also be named Highmark Stadium.
Make it make sense.
What did make sense for many of us was the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion on social media about the end of an era at the present Highmark Stadium. There are 52 years of memories multiplied by the millions of people who one day decided (or it was decided for them at birth) they would be known as a fan of the Buffalo Bills. That’s a lot of humans who created memories around the physical structure of this ‘spartan’ stadium.
It also seems human nature that after the last game at the stadium fans would want to take a piece of the stadium with them (to add to the insanely decked out fan caves scattered across the region).
But pee troughs?
Only in Western New York would a pee trough become an object of intense desire to own for the perfect fan cave. If only I could get my hands on one I would display it behind me when I do our Tee Time w/Robyn podcasts. I’m sure Tee would love it. Ha.
What’s the over/under on how many people will go to jail trying to get their hands on one of ‘The Ralph’s’ most notorious features? Furnishings? Um… plumbing?
Stadiums represent an experience unique to each individual passing through it gates. For some, it represents decades of being a season ticket holder where each stage of life is celebrated by the path to success or in the case of the Bills… the foibles of an NFL team in any given year.
In my typically late to the conversation way I avoided pontificating about the end of this era at the present Highmark Stadium until now. I prefer to process it along with all of you and arrive at my own conclusions. The outpouring of fans’ feelings about saying goodbye to a theatre for gladiators for more than a half century was heart warming and enlightening for many reasons.
One of my favorite responses was found on X by a creative and talented gentleman we know as @TheeBrotherBill. Here is what he shared about this thoughts regarding the last game at Highmark stadium.
BrotherBill relayed more than his own memories at Highmark Stadium over the years. He conveyed the raw emotion of realizing a transition took place right under our noses and we didn’t even see it coming. You wake up one day and BAM… there it is.
The world moved on.
New stadiums come and go but the memories created in them last forever. Really? How do memories last forever when we are only on the earth for a short period of time? Are they carried on as in the oral tradition of many cultures of the past? Asking for a friend.
So… the bottom line is it’s not really the pee troughs that attract us as much as it is the memory of experiencing communal suffering with a full bladder in subzero temperatures?
Suffering is something fans of the Buffalo Bills know all too well.
Whatever the predilection, there are plenty of relics we worship around the world. Grand stadiums of the Roman Empire are among great representations of human behavior and engineering. I suspect somewhere buried among sacred Roman artifacts is a carefully preserved pee trough.
Times change, along with what is considered culturally appropriate methods of urination. Here’s to automatic flush toilets and plenty of them.
Editor’s babble: New traditions and symbols representing the next stadium will be created and carried on. After all, this is the fan base that invented breaking tables. Thank you for reading my nonsense. You can also find more of it on X @RobynMundyWYO.
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