In the department of Things It Took Me Too Long to Realize™, it just occured to me that “Howdy” is probably a compressed and slangified version “How do you do?” and not just some made up cowboy greeting. 🤦♂️
// cc: @hotdogsladies@mastodon.social @siracusa@mastodon.social
I spent a summer in London in my 20s. A few days into the trip, I was buying groceries and made the mistake of saying “howdy” to the grocery clerk. They responded in the most over-the-top cowboy accent, which had the people in line behind me in stitches. I was pretty embarrassed and I think he felt bad about it because then proceeded to bag my groceries, something they don’t do there.
@bryan Oh boy, that sounds like something that would stick with you. I’m not southern and would make a terrible cowboy, but I’ve gone with “Howdy” as my go-to greeting for quite a while as something different, hopefully disarming, and friendly.
