So
I literally got to see the instant that my digital clock skipped over the 2 a.m.
hour and it officially became 3 a.m.
WE
‘LOST’ AN hour of time (which we’ll get back come November 3 when we go back to
standard time). Everybody’s body clock felt a little bit funky Sunday morning
because they got one less hour of sleep. Unless, by chance, they were totally
lazy slugs and decided to sleep until about the noon hour to make up for the loss.
We
make the change in time that, as a child, I was taught in school was meant to
give farmers extra time periods with sunlight so they could tend to crops.
Of
course, the current trend is to tell stories totally debunking the idea that
farmers care in the least. Just this morning, I saw a broadcast report that attributed
the idea of Daylight Savings Time to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany during the First
World War effort.
Something
about needing to burn less coal for fuel if there was more time during the
daylight. Who knows what kind of tales future generations of schoolchildren
will be taught?
PERSONALLY,
I ALWAYS think of the time change as further evidence that we’re awfully close
to the return of baseball. Because if you look at the dates for Daylight
Savings Time, Opening Day will soon take place.
And
the World Series will just have ended right about the time we switch back to Standard
Time. I still remember reading a magazine feature about baseball during the
off-season – with the writer pointing out that the scoreboard clock of old Comiskey
Park was never re-set for the winter.
They’d
leave it to Daylight Savings Time year round – figuring that baseball fans
would never know the difference because nobody would be sitting in the seats
some December or January!
Of course, some people like to play their own ideological games. I remember in college one of my fellow students (who happened to be a Hoosier native) would talk it up as a major selling point the fact that he never changed time.
Of course, some people like to play their own ideological games. I remember in college one of my fellow students (who happened to be a Hoosier native) would talk it up as a major selling point the fact that he never changed time.
IN
HIS PART of the state, it remained on Standard Time year round – which put a
large swath of the state out of sync with the rest of the country. And even
with the rest of Indiana – as the far northwest corner sets its clocks in conjunction
with the time here in Chicago.
Clock never needed resetting. And the Cubs were losing -- what else is new! |
Who’s
to say?
It
does intrigue me that several states are trying to pass measures that would
make Daylight Savings Time the official standard for time year-round.
AS
IN THOSE people would have changed their clocks Sunday, and would never do so
again. They’d get an extra hour or so of daylight – although we should realize
that the winter months will naturally have shorter days because of the tilt of
Planet Earth and the way it rotates around its axis.
It
will be interesting to see how (or if) these legislative maneuvers succeed.
Because I’ve also heard from people who try to claim that Standard Time is “natural”
time – and that any effort to alter the clock is somehow unseemly.
Almost
as though we’re risking the “Wrath of God” himself by tinkering with the time
clock. Even though if you want to be downright honest, things such as clocks
and calendars themselves are man-made creations.
All
I know about the issue at large is two things – we’re even closer to the return
of baseball AND we’re a few steps farther away from the most dreadful time of year.
As in that mid-December period when we get sundown by about 4:30 p.m!
-30-
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