Wuthering Hyders

Morning Musings


Have you ever spent much time considering the phrase "crack of dawn"? Probably not, but you will now. I was doing that very thing a couple of days ago. As I tried to, in a quite vampire-like fashion, hide from the piercing light streaming through every tiny gap around the blackout drapes, my mind began warming up to run its daily marathon. At that point, it's pointless to try to go back to sleep. Especially with Perrin AKA Chatty Cathy bouncing on my bed and starting his perpetual asking of questions. He's lucky he's so cute.

So. The crack of dawn. I challenge you to think of a positive use for that word. Think about it. Cracking a mirror brings you seven years bad luck (or maybe just three and a half if it's not completely broken), a cracked windshield is something you can be written up for, plumbers' crack, smoking crack, crack the whip, saying someone is cracked, step on a crack break your mother's back... Need I go on? I don't think this is coincidence. In fact, I think it's surely intentional. A fitting phrase coined by someone who, like me, was NOT a morning person.

I found this on a website called Romance Reader at Heart.


At the Crack of Dawn: of course we all know this means early. Another American term in origin, the crack was from the German word, Krach, which means a loud noise. Loud noises are usually sudden, and so the Crack of Dawn in the saying refers to the sudden appearance of the sun when its rays first reach out in the horizon of the east. It's first appearance in print is thought to be in Outing in 1887.

Sudden loud noises at dawn sound pleasant, huh? Of course, the sudden part was what we are meant to understand. Either way, I don't care for anything sudden in the morning unless it's more sleep. Fat chance of that! Once Perrin is awake, he sees to it that everyone else is awake too. I can hear Abby yell at him to go away when he tries to get her up. She's not a morning person, either, but he's persistent. Unfortunately for him though, Abby doesn't find him as cute as I do. She is not above resorting to physical violence if she really wants to go back to sleep. From there, it all spirals downward with astonishing speed.

Now, whenever you wake up bright and early, you, too, can sit in bed and wonder about the crack of dawn. Then, if you're lucky, you can roll over, pull the covers over your head, and go back to sleep. Sleep a couple of hours for me while you're at it.