I have always been a morning person. I had a lot of reinforcement for being a morning person from my days as a kid, working a morning paper route. Some mornings, particularly cold winter mornings, I hated getting out of bed, but most mornings I didn’t mind.
While serving in the U.S. Air Force, I soon learned that everyone in the military was a morning person. In basic training, the Training Instructors (TI’s) would use a “military alarm clock” to wake us in the morning. A military alarm clock consists of a broom handle and an empty metal garbage can. The TI’s walk into the barracks and start beating on the inside of the garbage can to beat the band! Boy oh boy, did we hate that! I was very glad when, after eight weeks, basic training was complete.
Later, while working in a factory out on the plant floor I worked the third shift for a short time. I never got used to that. I would come home in the early morning and try to sleep, but the kids would be out making noise going to school and the birds would be out chirping and the garbage trucks rattling! How the heck could anyone sleep with all that racket going on?
My son and grandson on one of our early morning fishing trips a few years ago.
These days I still get up early. I like to read the morning paper and have a cup of coffee when it’s still quiet. And I like to fish, and to be a good fisherman you have to get out there early, because the best fishing is usually in the early morning and late evening. Not that I’m that good of a fisherman, but you do what you gotta do.
I also like to take an early morning walk. And again, it’s nice when there are few people around and not too many noisy activities disrupting my tranquil thoughts as I mosey along. But these days, in retirement, I can also take an afternoon snooze when needed…and that makes being a morning person pretty easy.
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