
Remembering the ‘Knocker-Ups’ Hired to Wake Workers with Pea Shooters - DmenshunlAnlsis
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-did-people-use-before-alarm-clocks
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mjlee
The Royal Navy still does this - partially because you want to ensure that
whoever is going to relieve you at 0400 is definitely awake and getting ready.

I always slept more soundly when I was getting a "shake" versus relying on my
alarm clock. It's very comforting to know that you're absolutely going to be
woken up when you asked to be and not have to worry about your phone being on
charge or accidentally sleeping through an alarm. It also meant you didn't
have to do time zone maths when you went to bed and that your alarm wouldn't
wake your cabin mates.

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viggity
In my fraternity we all slept in a single room (a cold-air dormitory). That
way you could stay up studying or whatever without bothering anyone trying to
sleep. As such no alarms were allowed from 6 to 9 am and there were two people
who had to sleep in their rooms for wake up duty. We had a big board outside
the sleeping hall and there were 2 tags for every bunk number. And there was a
nail for every half hour from 6 to 9. If you wanted to be woken up but not
forced up you could put your bunk number's black tag on a certain time
(perhaps 6:30) and a red tag on a different time (7:00). The guy on wakeup
duty would come shake you every 5 minutes, 15 minutes prior to the tag time.
At 5 minutes past, he was allowed to do anything (punching, ice water) until
you got out of your bunk and put your red tag bag on its own nail.

All this to say - yes. Fantastic fucking sleep. The cranked AC in the summer
the open windows even in the depths of winter helped too. Deepest sleep I've
ever gotten.

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nso95
That seems overly complicated

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pbhjpbhj
I've heard of the practice of knockerups several times before but always they
used a rod of some sort. The title is misleading as it reports plurally but
the story states that Mary Smith was unusual in singularly using a pea-shooter
and only reports on her, and later - on her demise - her daughter Mary, using
a pea-shooter [possibly the self-same one?].

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aklemm
Yes! I always thought the unaided or alarm clock only wake up is a tall order
and doesn't quite jive with how I sleep/wake. A proper physical wake up is
just the thing.

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trigonomicon
God dammit. I love this idea.

Being woken up by a person sounds so much more pleasant than the idea of some
obnoxious scheduled noise. Alarm clocks and telephone calls are the most
dehumanizing thing ever. Even if you can ignore it because the alarm isn't for
you, but the person next to you. Sometimes having to wake up to someone else's
terrible morning alarm is worse, because you can't exactly opt out on the same
terms.

At least you can whine and complain to a person trying to wake you up, however
antagonizing and snarky they may be.

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camillomiller
Google Knocker-up: a new Assistant feature that wakes you up with a gentle
voice and interacts with you as you get out of your sleepy state. Might be
worth a rebranding, though.

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J-dawg
I'm sure I remember a mobile app that would connect you with a random user at
the appointed time, chat-roulette style (although I think this was voice only,
no video).

A bit of Googling has found several chat apps (e.g. Holla, Wakie) but none
that specifically mention an alarm feature, but I'm sure I remember it.

It has obvious potential for trolling and abuse, but maybe a premium version,
where you pay a small fee for the best 'knocker-ups' could be popular!

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level3
I remember this too so I looked it up. It was Wakie, but it seems that they’ve
de-emphasized the wake-up call aspect.

Here’s an article from 2014:
[https://techcrunch.com/2014/12/10/wakie/](https://techcrunch.com/2014/12/10/wakie/)

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J-dawg
Interesting, thanks! I assumed Wakie was the one (from the name) but was
confused when I couldn't find any mention of the wake-up feature.

I guess it's one of those ideas that seems fun but has way too much potential
for creepiness!

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pizzapill
Who was waking up the knocker ups?

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Steltek
Some people are naturally early birds. Either by long ingraned habits. I used
to get up fairly early without an alarm until we had kids. Now I can't sleep
in enough (nor am I allowed to ;).

