Welcome!
I worked in the 70s and 80s with a fellow suburban Detroiter, a Jew who loved to celebrate Christmas and taught our newsroom Yiddish expressions, sometimes leaving me farblondjet. She was a smart woman, a joy to work with. But she picked up two expressions and for a few weeks at a time, did'em each to death: "Boy Howdy!" and I can't recall how she used it, and "Ain't that about a willie?" long before the Clinton presidency.
So if your howdy comes with a Texas twang, it's good. Hers had a distinctly Michigan sound.
