Gene from the Badlands of South Dakota grew up hearing his grandmother’s temperance-flavored line, Cold water is the cup that cheers away, away the bowl. The clue is away the bowl, a refrain in abstinence songs and rhymes going back at least to the 1830s, where bowl meant not just a vessel but its alcoholic contents and the revelry that followed. Gene also asks about ordering plain water without ice as a blue dolphin neat. That one doesn’t appear to be widely recorded, though water has plenty of joking bar names, including Adam’s ale, city coke, fish broth, and windmill cocktail. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Temperance Songs Urged Drinkers to “Cheer Away the Bowl””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Gene Williams. I’m calling from the Badlands of South Dakota.
Welcome to the show, Gene. What’s up?
Hi, Gene.
Well, my grandmother used to have a saying that I was wondering what the origins of it were. Whenever we were talking about needing to get a drink or something, she always would say, “Well, cold water is the cup that cheers away away the bowl.” And my mother said she thought that had something to do with possibly the Women’s Christians Temperance Union that my grandmother had been along to back in the early 20s or something. But anyway, that was the first thing.
And then the second part of this question, I guess, is my wife, she doesn’t, when we go out, she usually wants to order water. And we’ve gotten into the habit of ordering a blue dolphin neat, and that’s just water with no ice. And I was wondering if blue dolphin is something that is known as a non-alcoholic, just water, if that is a common phrase that is used throughout the country or not.
Well, let’s address that last one first. I don’t know that, and I don’t think that’s in any of my slang dictionaries, but it’s possible. Is blue dolphin a brand of water, perhaps? I know there are a bunch of slang terms for water, like windmill cocktail or city coke or fish broth or Adam’s ale. You could say, “Give me one on the city,” meaning city water. Neptune’s daughter. Those are all those. And there’s probably more that I’m forgetting. But I’ve never heard blue dolphin neat. That’s a good one. I’ll have to add that to my list.
Blue dolphin neat. I haven’t heard that either. So you pop into a restaurant and ask for a blue dolphin neat, and they know what you’re talking about?
Yeah, that’s the question. Quite a few of the establishments that we go to, they do seem to know. Maybe they just pick up on the idea that it’s, yeah, that looks like probably what they want or something. So I don’t know.
And so the other expression, this was your grandmother, and she would say, what was it now? She would say, “Cold water is the cup that cheers away, away the bowl.” I think your mother was right. That is exactly part of a temperance saying. The temperance movement had a number of rhymes and songs. And that last part in particular, away the bowl, has belonged to rhymes and songs that have been used since at least the 1830s to talk about giving up alcohol. There was one, for example, from 1837. I’ll just read a couple lines to you. It goes something like, “Neglected duties rise in fearful sad array. Up to its brim, I will be wise. I’ve cast the bowl away.” And the bowl here means the drinking bowl. The bowl had a long time ago, many centuries ago, came to stand for its contents. And it almost always referred to alcoholic contents or even in a larger context, the revelry and the hijinks that would ensue when you got drunk or tipsy from drinking the contents of that bowl.
What’s funny is I’m looking at the sheet music for that last one that you mentioned. And it looks like a drinking song.
Oh.
“Cold water is the cup that way away the bowl.” I wonder if they put Temperance lyrics to an old drinking song.
That’s what I’m wondering. It just seems like it would lend itself to swinging a mug in great foamy arcs.
So that’s what we know. Gene, what do you think?
I appreciate all of the information. It gives me a little bit better understanding. I thought my mother was probably right, but I’m glad that you’re able to clear up that that’s where that came from. So thank you. And thank you for the other suggestions as far as different types of cocktails that are city water and such.
Yeah. Ask for Adam’s Ale and see what you get.
All right. Well, thank you, folks.
All right. Take care of yourself. Be well.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
