I Like Mornings

There's something special about mornings.

At this time of year, mornings start early; we've just had the earliest sunrise of the year (5:28 a.m.). The birds are singing and all the foliage fresh.
I come from a long line of folks ”doing mornings."
-- My dad was a mariner, ex.-Royal Canadian Navy, and his watches on minesweepers and other craft were simply called,"Four hours on, and four hours off."
When he became a civilian again, and for the rest of his life, he got up at 4 a.m. — EVERY morning.
I remember as a child, hearing the coffee percolator on the stove and then smelling the coffee shortly after.
-- My maternal grandfather was also a mariner, and a cook.
When we visited and stayed overnight even when he was in his 70s and 80s, I remember entering his kitchen at 6 a.m., to watch him take a batch of freshly-baked bread out of the oven!
At that age, he also fished lobsters, and those folks have to get up way before sunrise.
-- I always got up early — and still carry on the family tradition.
All through school years, then at university and work, I would get up early to check the overnight news, and sometimes, because it was quiet, I was able to study or write effectively, that is, without interruption.
(Of course, at university, I was often called upon to act as residence alarm clock!)
Not everybody, Dear Reader, shares my passion about mornings, but that is their loss!
Many songs have been composed about 'mornings.’
Most of the works of Roger Whittaker are about mornings ('New World in the Morning,’ and 'Morning has Broken.’
When a fan asked why this theme appealed to him so much, he replied that it was because mornings are fresh, and they give you a chance to 'start over again.'
I have always been a fan of morning radio, especially news programs.
The local CBC program, 'Information Morning,’ this year celebrating 47 years on the air, had an especially interesting opening theme in its earlier years.
It carried on a play on words: during World War II, Halifax had served as headquarters for the Allied war effort in the Atlantic. It had a lot of ‘desk’ personnel, who became known (euphemistically) in the enlisted Service vocabulary as ‘slackers.’
The below-decks and sea personnel felt that they were doing all the heavy work themselves.
The name had stuck: the CBC program's opening theme was entitled, ’Slackers, Awake!'