The sun sets early
December 10, 2008 (Wednesday)
The sun sets in Houston today at 5:22 p.m. Everywhere you look this evening, birds will have gone to roost. This includes the chickens. Hence the expression, “Gone to bed with the chickens.” Back in the days before electric lights, radio and television, there was not much one could do after dark except go to bed. If you slept until the sun rose, however, you would be in bed almost 14 hours, and that’s too long for most people. So folks who “went to bed with the chickens” got up a long time before daylight and went about their chores. Even in the cities, people gathered eggs, milked cows and tended to many other chores around the home. People were up early and out and about. They generally bragged about it, too.
I recall Dr. Perry Webb’s telling me he did not get up early. He said, “The Bible says that pride goes before a fall. I’ve noticed that people who get up early are proud of it. I don’t want to fall, so I avoid pride by staying in bed!” I have a feeling he was pulling my leg, because he couldn’t have been lazy and pastor of the First Baptist Church of San Antonio for such a long time, at the same time providing leadership for Christians everywhere.
Remember the stories of Abe Lincoln staying up at night reading by the light of the fireplace? Where there’s a will there’s a way, isn’t there? Eventually the kerosene lamp provided light for reading and sewing after dark in many a home. Later in the cities, people had a life after dark with the aid of gaslight. Finally electricity came, and the incandescent light. I recall my grandparents had one light, not very bright, in each room, hanging from the ceiling. Nowadays there are so many lights we can no longer see the stars. But they are there. Yes, they are. They are there. I know they are, because I saw them as a child.