Born and grew up in solid S8 Blades-land: Norton Lees with a view of the 5 floodlights at the Lane from the attic window. Beautiful. School full of Blades at Meersbrook Bank, save for literally one kid called Kristian who was the only Pig I ever met up until the age of 9. He wasn't really interested in football.
We moved to Stannington in S6 in 1982. Might have expected it to be a mirror image of Norton Lees, but it wasn't. Yes, there were a majority of people who said they supported the Filth, but there weren't many who actually went to the matches on a regular basis. There were plenty who would wash their car in a replica shirt on a weekend if they'd won or, later in the early 90's, get their car stickers to announce what big fans they were, but they never actually set foot in the Sty. Can only assume that the Pig support is drawn from other parts of S6, because it certainly wasn't Stannington.
At the same time, there was a hard core of United fans in the area and invariably, unlike the 'nowters' who "like to see Wednesday do well", they were committed fans who actually went to the matches. I went there and was immediately into the school football team as the captain. And, despite making up a much smaller proportion of the school, United fans provided a disproportionate number of players in the school team - typically 5 or 6 and that carried on throughout school.
So, my experience of S6 formed my firm view that United fans are a completely different and far superior breed to the Filth. I've honestly never met a Pig who I've regarded as being as into his club as I am. One positive of being exiled in North Leeds now is that I very rarely meet any of them now, but the occasional one that I do see merely confirms everything that I hold true about them. At work, there is a 50-odd year old bloke who hadn't been to the Sty for literally 20 years but briefly 'found football' in May this year; he got tickets for the entire family to go to Wembley. He is the sort of person that comprised a large chunk of their 'support' which they all got so giddy about i.e. Not really a supporter at all.
We're the proper club attracting proper football people. They're just a bunch of nowters.