[Intermission Part 3] Before the Morning Glories Wilt

From today, summer vacation begins for everyone.
Once again, I feel a slight sense of urgency that summer is truly here.

Even though summer has only just begun, I realize it will pass in the blink of an eye.

Thinking about that, I remembered my own summer vacations as an elementary school student.

When I see morning glories, I am reminded of my summer vacations in elementary school.

It is 6:00 AM, and a coolness still lingers in the air.
A faint mist hangs outside, and the low, calm cooing of a turtle dove can be heard from the direction of the mountains.

On such a morning, my older brother wakes me up.

"Time for radio calisthenics."

Truth be told, I want to keep sleeping.

Even so, so as not to be left behind, I quickly get dressed and jog to the community center about five minutes from our house.

By the time I reach the community center, the blue sky has spread out.

The neighborhood ladies took turns being in charge of the radio calisthenics.

The lady in charge was always someone's mother.

"I wonder whose mother it is today."

Thinking that, I lined up in a circle with the other children.

I gaze at the blue sky while moving my body to the music flowing from the radio.

As a child, doing six minutes of exercise from the morning felt like a very long time.

When it finally ended, we all lined up in a row.

This was to get a stamp on our summer vacation radio calisthenics card from the lady in charge.

Seeing one more stamp added, I felt as if I had fulfilled my duty for the day.

On the way home, I would make my usual detour with my brother.

There was a large tree on the slope leading to our house.

The gaps in that tree were a secret spot where rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles gathered.

Every morning, my brother and I would peek into the gaps in the tree with anticipation.

The rhinoceros beetles my brother caught were kept in a large insect cage that our father had made.

When I got home, the first thing I did was look at the morning glories.

The reddish-purple flowers were blooming in the morning light.

"They haven't wilted yet."

Seeing that, I felt a little relieved.

We had a morning glory observation diary as part of our summer vacation homework.

I had to remember the color and shape of the flowers and the state of the leaves.

Morning glories wilt before noon.
If I overslept, I couldn't observe them in their beautiful, blooming state.

That's why, if the flowers were still open when I returned from radio calisthenics, I felt like I had made it in time.

However, I didn't start writing in my observation diary right away.

Having run to the community center and exercised since the morning, I was already hungry.

From inside the house, I could smell my mother making my father's bento.

What I looked forward to was the leftover rolled omelet that went into the bento.

After taking a quick look at the morning glories, I would put off the observation diary and hurry inside the house.

"Is there any rolled omelet left?"

I think there were many summer vacation mornings where I looked forward to the rolled omelet more than the morning glories.


Even so, now, when I see morning glories, it's not just the flowers that come to mind.

The morning air with lingering mist.
The sound of turtle doves heard on summer vacation mornings.
The sleepiness when I was woken up by my brother.
The road I ran to the community center.
The stamps increasing on my radio calisthenics card.
The large tree I peeked into with my brother.
My mother making my father's bento and the leftover rolled omelet.

At the time, it was just an ordinary, typical summer vacation morning.

Nothing special had happened.
It wasn't a memory of a family trip or a grand festival.

It was just that my family was there, and the usual morning was beginning.

When I was a child, a single day of summer vacation felt very long.

Now that I am an adult, I feel nostalgic, realizing that being able to spend my days like that was a form of happiness.

This year, too, morning glories will bloom somewhere.

My happy summer memories that come back to life every time I see a morning glory.

I am participating in Nozomin-san's [Project] Tell me! Your Summer Memories | 😊