A Stepper Like You

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Katie from Dallas.

Hi, Katie from Dallas. How are you doing?

I’m good. How are you?

All right. What can we help you with?

Well, a couple weeks ago, I was putting a sound system into a convention center, and I had to run a cable in front of a door.

So I asked the house electrician if he wanted me to take the cable up over the door.

He goes, no, no, just tape it down.

And I said, oh, of course, I’ll tape it.

And he goes, yeah, well, I figured it weren’t no heel for a stepper like you.

Say that again?

Love it.

He said, I figured it weren’t no heel for a stepper like you.

Is that heel or hill?

Heel.

As in the bottom of your foot.

-huh.

-huh.

Interesting.

Yeah.

It weren’t no heel for a stepper like you.

What did he mean by that?

Were you offended or delighted?

No, I was delighted.

Oh, okay.

He meant that he thought I could handle the application of the tape, I suppose.

So he was an older gentleman, probably from East Texas, real deep accent, and I asked him if he knew where that phrase had come from.

And he said he didn’t know, but that he had just heard it his whole life.

And I thought, oh, man, what a great phrase.

I have to call A Way with Words.

I was hoping you could tell me where it was from.

Well, we have information about it for sure.

Yeah.

And I’ve seen both versions.

Both the versions that you mentioned, Grant, ain’t no heel for a stepper like you and ain’t no hill for a stepper like you, particularly in Texas.

Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah, throughout the South.

And my sense of it is that it’s no heel for a stepper, meaning a horse who’s really good at going up hills.

It’s not too big of an obstacle for a horse to get over.

Yeah, a stepper like you, a fine piece of horse flesh.

That ain’t no hill.

You just go right up it.

I’ve seen it in terms of money, too.

You know, if a car is really expensive, you say, that ain’t no hill for a stepper like you.

Okay.

So what the guy was saying, of course, was that you’re very capable, obviously.

Yeah, nice.

I’m not surprised something like that’s popular in Texas.

We have a certain turn of phrase here.

Yeah.

We do.

Boy, howdy, do you?

We aren’t going to mess with you.

Well, thank you guys so much.

Thanks, Katie.

Much appreciated.

Great to talk with you.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

You too.

Bye-bye.

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