Summer of Littles 3.1, Pittsburgh Venue

The "Official Portrait" 

Littles (definition) - A community of people from throughout the United States, and, indeed, all over the globe, bound together by their devotion, a devotion inexplicable to non-Littles, to a Washington DC based Podcast hosted by former sportswriter and Pardon The Interruption host Tony Kornheiser.  Also often referred to as Loyal Littles.

If the above definition does not apply to you, then you may want to stop reading now, or perhaps it will encourage you to find the Kornheiser Podcast and become a Little yourself.  Anyway, yesterday, August 7, over 300 Littles from across the globe gathered in close to forty different locations to get together to share in their TK Fandom and just get to know one another and have a great time.  These gatherings began in 2018.  What was to be the third annual Summer of Littles gatherings in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic, hence the "3.1" designation for the 2021 festivities.

This was also the first time that Pittsburgh held a SoL gathering, and Yours Truly hosted the event.  Honestly, "hosting" consisted of picking out a place to gather and attaching my name to the fabulous summeroflittles.com website put together by Connecticut Little Bob Walsh.  The place was the Southern Tier Brewing Co. on Pittsburgh's North Shore, in the shadows of both PNC Park and Heinz Field.  I honestly had no idea what to expect in terms of turnout, but ten Littles (Bob, Tom, Joe, Jeannie, Dennis, Trish, Joyce, Jim, Lisa, and John)  gathered for the event, which to my understanding is a good number for the first time at a venue.  None of us had ever met personally, although several of us were acquainted via participation of a couple of Facebook group pages devoted to Loyal Littles and the Podcast.  It really was a kick to get to know everyone.  

We were fortunate enough to get an outdoor table at Southern Tier.  The weather cooperated, the beer was cold, the food was good, and the conversation was lively.  We hung around for over three hours, and a good time, I believe, was had by all.  Just about everybody said, "see you next year" when the party finally broke up.

A special tip of the hat goes to Jeannie Byers who traveled all the way from Baltimore to attend.  As regular at Chatter and past Jinglefests over the years, Jeannie could almost be considered "Littles Royalty."  This was the third different Summer of Littles location that Jeannie has attended.  Now, she has a year to figure out what location will attend in 2022.  That is the magic of being a Little - you are welcomed by fellow Littles everywhere.

Jeannie and The Grandstander meet

After not knowing what to expect, I ended up having a ball, and I will look forward to doing it again come 2022.  Thanks go out to the previously mentioned Bob Walsh for being the SoL webmaster, and to "Chuck and Roxy" who heavily promoted Summer of Littles 3.1 on their Loyal Littles Podcast.  I doubt that the day would have been nearly as successful as it was without all of their efforts.

"August Finally Has A Holiday!"

"La Cheeserie" 

from the 

Pittsburgh Littles