You Can Do It, Louie!
Motherisms
My mother used a plethora of idioms. Some known to everyone. Some known to the South. And some known just to her. And, as I said in an earlier writing, sometimes she would hilariously mix them up.
She may not have had ‘book smarts’ but her colorful turns of phrases made a talk with her delightful and interesting. When she was upset with some knuckle-headed thing I had done, she favored saying, “If you’re not careful, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week.”
So, even when she was clearly bothered with me, she could still elicit a smile. As an occasional mischievous youngster, I couldn’t imagine how you could knock anyone into the middle of next week!
When I would invariably ask her what day it was, either because I was too young to read, too young to care to keep track or too lazy to check for myself, she would just as invariably respond with, “It’s (whatever day of the week it was) all day, unless it rains.” To this day I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.
But I find myself faithfully parroting it.
A favorite of hers was “Pardon my boardinghouse reach” as she, or one of us, would stretch for platters of food across the table because we were too antsy and too hungry to wait for them to be passed. A large, oak round table with a Lazy Susan helped considerably to reduce our barbarian manners and boardinghouse reaches.
My siblings and I can’t recall at a moment’s notice all the expressions mom used, but if you hang around us long enough, we’ll blurt them out without even realizing it.
I commonly exhort slow moving teen agers on river trips who are dilly-dallying getting their bags packed, or getting ready for a hike, with the exhortation mom used on me, with very little effect and so many times, “C’mon, James-or-Butch! Grandma’s slow, but she’s old!” And, like my mom, I’ve created my own expression for this specific type of occasion because I love a touch of sarcasm, “And they’re off! Like a herd of enraged turtles!”
One cultural idiom we heard a lot while growing up, but I had no frame of reference for was, “You can do it, Louie!” Mom loved to use it whenever some one, or some thing, was struggling to complete a task - a wobbly infant trying to stand up, me attempting to hand crank ice cream out on the back porch, or our portly Skye terrier, Lady MacTavish, hoisting herself awkwardly up steps.
I searched for it online and - voila! - discovered it was an old vaudeville routine by a guy named Bob Williams and his sleepy-eyed spaniel, Louie. They performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in what was probably the ‘50s. It’s hard to believe an expression like “You can do it, Louie!” would take hold and spread in the pre-internet era, but the ‘variety hour’ show was extremely popular having aired from 1947 to 1971. On top of that, Bob and Louie’s act was unique in that Louie’s schtick was to refuse to perform, or half-assedly, perform.
Curiously though, when you search the expression, the top hit is someone’s response to a review on Amazon regarding a book about Home Workouts. The responder titles their review, "You can do it Louie!" - Quote from old Ed Sullivan act with a hound dog laying on the floor.
The rest of the search hits for the next two pages are in reference to the comedian Louie CK, or the old Richard Berry tune made famous by the Kingsmen in 1963, which happens to be Washington’s state song, “Louie, Louie”, or a computer system at Northern Arizona University called Louie, but nothing more referencing mom’s beloved expression.
Which is a clear indication to me that no time should be lost chronicling her pithy, as well as pithless, sayings before they are lost forever.
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While researching the Louie quote, I came across the Ross Sisters from West Texas. Probably because they performed on the Ed Sullivan Show as well.
All I can say is. . . . . WOW! WOW! WOW!
See for yourself.
(If Josh Adler, Kent Chapple or Robert Kolden are reading these words, I want you to remember Debauchery Beach on the Lower Salmon - if you can. The Ross Sisters successfully perform the “That’s Stupid” act y’all attempted in the last scene of their act, Solid Potato Salad.)
Also, I was looking for video of the guy who threw a horseshoe for a ringer on stage as Johnny Carson lay down right in front of the post, but I couldn’t find it.
This will have to suffice.
Here’s Alan Francis who some people believe was the best horseshoe pitcher ever.