Kenneth Dean: On the Scene

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

The alarm clock buzzes loudly, signaling it is again time to drag myself out of bed and somehow manage to dress in a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and running shoes. The cold water on my face wakes me temporarily and I amble toward the front door, after brushing my teeth.

The darkness of early morning still looms across the sky as I make my way to my SUV. A bird whistles somewhere in the night and I fumble for my keys.

Traffic is light as I pull onto the roadway and others in cars around me also appear to be sleep driving to wherever they are going.

When I finally arrive at the gym, I am greeted by a smiling face that says simply “Good morning, sir.”

I groggily smile back and say good morning to a young lady who evidently got up before me and who did brush her hair instead of throwing a ball cap on her head.

A trainer working with a group of people looks up and asks how I am doing and again I give some kind of groggy answer.

Have you ever given any thought to the men and women who work all night while most of us slumber in our comfortable beds wrapped in comforters like burritos?

Until recently, I had not made it a habit to get out of bed before 6 a.m. and now I find myself running on a treadmill moments after five.

Oh, I distinctly remember the sadistic drill sergeant with the heavy metal garbage can beating and screaming to the recruits to get our lazy carcasses out of bed during my Army basic training days at Fort Benning, Ga. But that was, as my father says, many moons ago and I try to forget the only person I ever plotted to snuff out. Hey, if you had this guy beating on a trash can and making you do pushups in the darkness in your skivvies, you would want to kill him too.

One thing I have learned in the recent weeks is that there is a whole other culture that happens in the middle of the night and life does not stop just because yours truly is lost in dreamland.

No, that is not the bogeyman lurking in the darkness and tiptoeing through the shadows, but delivery men and women leaving loaves of bread, cases of sodas and milk at the local markets and newspaper carriers throwing your morning paper.

It is also the wait staff at the local coffee shop where many will go to obtain that sweet caffeinated nectar that wakens them and allows them to function.

There are the clerks in the convenience stores, firefighters and EMS personnel ready to respond to emergencies and police sitting in their patrol cars ready to protect and serve.

There are doctors, nurses, lab technicians and a slew of others at the hospital ready to treat medical problems and who also take care of our loved ones as we sleep.

Yes, life does go on even as we sleep, and that person serving your coffee, the police officer pulling you over for speeding or the clerk at the corner store may have been up all night.

Even though you are sleepy and may be out of sorts for having to get out of bed, just remember, while you were sleeping they were working, so smile back and wish them a good morning as well.

Kenneth Dean
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