Sunday, June 16, 2013

Morning Time is Father's Time

Goooooooood morning, Vietnam! Hey, this is not a test! This is rock and roll! Time to rock it from the Delta to the D.M.Z.! - Adrian Cronauer (Good Morning Vietnam)

Growing up I associated the morning with dad. In the family, he had the highest amount of "morning person" in him. As a small kid I would be blissfully asleep in bed when he would wander in singing one of the many variations of "good morning to you..." and open the shutters on the windows in my room ("good morning to you"). I had a corner room on the north east side ("you look like a monkey"), so the morning sun would come right in the windows onto my face ("and you act like one too").

On lazy weekends we would get up, go grab some cereal, and sit down to watching morning cartoons. *chomp* *chomp* He-Man *chomp* *chomp* Captain N: The Game Master *chomp* *chomp* Mask. Back in the days of only have a half a dozen televisions stations, sometimes historic world events would occur and preempt the cartoons. My father, always crafty, would pull out a VHS tape of cartoons recorded on previous weekends and we were once again back in business!

Moving on to Jr. High and High School the morning routine matured, but I could still count on being woken up to music. Monday through Saturday, he would blast (I mean BLAST) the soundtrack to Good Morning Vietnam though the house at wakeup time. I expect to be able to recite Robin William's opening for the rest of my life. The only "relief" was on Sunday mornings.... "Jesus Christ.... Superstar... Do you think you're what they say you are?"