Rode hard, put away wet (1958)

[Page Stephens]

Here is a reference to Tennessee Ernie's use of the phrase.

I am curious if anyone else ever used pea-pickin' or pea pickers in the way
he did.

My guess is that he invented the term in that sense but I do not know.

If any of you ol' pea pickers are able to find any reference to it other
than Tennessee Ernie his original stage name before he went uptown and
discovered he had a last name and became more respectable in the 1950s I
would love to
hear about it.

It is from http://www.tvacres.com/catch_b.htm

Page Stephens

"Bless your pea-pickin' hearts" - The signature signoff of singer comedian
Ernie Ford who hosted the musical variety THE FORD SHOW/NBC/1956-61. He was
fond of ending his program with traditional religious songs which he called
the "finest love songs of all". Born Ernest Jennings Ford in 1919 in the
town of Bristol, Tennessee, "Tennessee" Ernie Ford was the first country
singer to appear at the Paladium in London in 1953. His homespun humor and
corny country ways were evident in such phrases like "Nervous as a
long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs" and "Feels like I've been
rode hard and put away wet". Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in
1990, Ernie Ford died of complications due to liver ailments on October 17,
1991. His most popular song was "Sixteen Tons" written by Merle Travis in
1947.