Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Rise and/or Shine


Go ahead! Sing!

How do you 'rise and shine'?
Throughout my life, I have been summoned from sleep in various ways.
Some gentle.
Some strident.
All annoying.
My mom, a member of the 'never wake a sleeping child' sorority, let me sleep in till I woke up on my own.
Well, until I went to school, that is.
Then, her usual wake up call consisted of, “Diane! Get up! The bus will be here in ten minutes!”
Okay, I will admit that she usually called me much earlier than that.
I just wasn't listening.
Ahem.
Dad's form of summoning consisted of one word. “Spring!”
And it was always obeyed instantly.
My Mom, you could coax and cajole, but dad?
You moved.
Because.
Often, I found myself standing beside my bed with no idea of how I got there.
My Husby took a more creative, albeit (Oooh! Good word!) equally annoying route.
He would sing.
Badly.
But loudly.
In our house, 'Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!', the usually bright, happy, uplifting anthem from Oklahoma, sounded more like . . . honking.
Or a chorus of frogs.
Or ball-bearings rolling around in a hubcap.
(Don't ask me how I know what that sounds like.)
His 'singing' brought instant . . . let me put it this way: No one slept through it.
“Dad! Aarrgghh!”
Success.
Moving ahead . . .
Our oldest son had recently become engaged.
To a beautiful girl.
Our entire family had travelled to Fort Macleod to a reunion.
Our future daughter-in-law was bunking with our other daughters.
It was morning.
There was far too much sleeping going on.
My Husby decided he needed to do something proactive.
He went to the door of the girls' room.
Cleared his throat.
And started singing.
You really haven't heard 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning' sung quite like he sings it.
Our future daughter-in-law looked at her future sister-in-law.
“Does he always do this?”
Her answer was muffled by the pillow over her future sister-in-law's head. “Yes.”
“Oh. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to rethink my joining this family.”
She did join. She comes from hardy stock.
I thought I'd tell you that in case you were worried.
Back to my story . . .
This morning, my alarm woke me.
“Bla-Bla-Bla-Bla-Bla-Bla . . .”
Suddenly I missed my Mom's repeated time updates, my Dad's single word warnings and my Husby's singing.
It's all a matter of perspective.

18 comments:

  1. It got to the point where we were up the instant the door opened...

    *creak*
    "Ahem..."
    BOING!
    "Don'tsingI'mup!"

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  2. Leather clearing belt loops was one of the best wake-up calls I ever heard. Then in college it was the radio alarm that had a short circuit and often came on with an unbearable amount of static. Now it's just that my right side can't stand the bed anymore, not to mention having to visit the latrine.

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    Replies
    1. Sad when you don't have to be awakened any more. Your body simply can't stand the strain of lying there any longer . . .

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  3. I deny any knowledge of or participation in this obviously fictitious event.

    Anonymous Father-Husby-Bad Musician figure

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  4. There is nothing worse than the shrill tones of the alarm clock...when I retired I unplugged the devils minion and hid it in my bottom drawer.

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  5. Our once-in-awhile wake up 'song' was "wake up mary sunshine"

    It that a song?

    Lesa

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    Replies
    1. EEEEEEEEEEEE! I almost forgot! Thank you for reminding me! My mother used to sing "Good morning Mary Sunshine, how did you wake so soon?" . . . etc. Such a good memory. And I have you to thank for it! :)

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  6. You know, I sometimes sing to my children to wake up - which is met by grumble grumble gripe gripe. I love to sing, but I always use this horrible voice for the morning - almost to be annoying on purpose.

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    Replies
    1. Perfect! You and my Husby must be on the same page! :)

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  7. That's a good way to wake up! I never had to be woken up and never needed an alarm clock until I went back to work 7 years ago. As a kid, I was always up by 5:30 or 6:00 am whether I wanted to be or not. Even after staying up dancing until midnight the night before... I could just never sleep late. I like to be awake when it is light outside and sleep when it's dark. I'm weird that way. ha ha :)

    My husband is a different story though... Brian's Dad would come in and say, "Brian, the next time I come by this door I better see feet on the floor!" So he would swing his feet out of the bed and put them on the floor and then go back to sleep. :)

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  8. hahahahahahaha! I love that story about your husband! Sounds like a blog story to me . . .
    I love the whole early to bed, early to rise scenario. Mornings are so wonderful!

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  9. My parents were up at dawn, being farmers. When Dad got a super radio/tape player/record player, he would turn on to WGEM Hal Barton, and crank up the bass. I hated that.

    Now I would love to hear it again.

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    Replies
    1. Isn't it amazing how time flavours our memories? They become so much sweeter when it is added!

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  10. My husband's father sang the same song....and badly too! My kids are too cranky in the morning to even look at so I'm not sure they will have any memories. Thank you for sharing with us at NOBH :)

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