I had always remembered my mother noting a song that her father sang to her and her sister every morning to get them up and out of bed. When I asked for more details, she immediately groaned and grimly stated “trust me, after I moved out of home I never wanted to think about that song again. My dad would always sing it so loudly and so early”. She said the song went as follows:

“It’s time to get up, it’s time to get up, it’s time to get up in the mooorning”

She stated that he would repeat this over and over again until both girls finally popped out of bed simply from dreading hearing another verse. She noted that this was one of the few songs that my grandfather knew, because he went deaf at age twelve due to medical complications. He had heard it from his Swedish parents and remembered the tune to sing to his children years after losing his hearing. Perhaps, my mother said, this was why he would sing it so loud in the morning!

Fortunately, my mother never sang that song to my sister or I when we were growing up, and I have a feeling that it has to do with her not liking it when she was young. Because of this, the song will likely not be carried on in family tradition, and I bet each generation will be thankful of that. I believe that this song must have originated from a ‘morning person’ who would be up and cheery and singing in the morning. They must have taken a simple phrase like this and sang it until the tune caught on with their kids and their kids after that.