It most certainly was! In the days when tickets to the football were a fraction of the price they are now, and the weekly trip to Easter Rd/Tynecastle was just part and parcel of the working man's Saturday (followed, of course, by the boozer). It wasn't as if you supported the other team - you still had a love for your own team, you just also had a love for the footballing experience in general. And there were, of course, skirmishes, but none of the "I hate them so much I'd prefer to sprinkle Jim Traynor's bunion shavings on my pasta than shake their hand" thing. Or at the very least, it wasn't as brash as it has been latterly.