…Daylight Savings Time.
Or, as Mother called it, Fast Time.
Back when we were kids and we’d make the 400 10 hour trip from Germantown, Ohio to Lexington, VA, Mother would always say, “I always forget that they’re on Fast Time here.”
Ohio didn’t do it back then. Not until the Nixon administration pushed for the entire coutry to go on it.
Tricky Dick, as part of the Energy Conservation Act of 1973 (see, we have cared about Mother Earth for longer than all you whippersnappers think!), added a nationwide change to DST which started in 1974.
Yes, there were a few rebels, Arizona and Indiana come to mind. They just didn’t get it, bless their hearts.
Much of the US and Europe have used DST in one way or another since WW I.
When Wilson was President.
It was used by Germany and Austria, the enemy at that time, to conserve fuel to make electric power. On April 30, 1916, all the clocks under German control jumped forward and stayed that way until October 1 of the same year.
Then everyone got their hour of sleep back.
The plan was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918. ‘An Act to preserve daylight and provide standard time for the United States‘ was enacted on March 19, 1918.
Use in the United States was sporadic at best. It wasn’t until the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that most of the country got on board. With the exceptions of aforementioned Arizona and Indiana.
In the UTA of 66, LBJ, the sitting President signed the bill that had DST begin on the 1st Sunday in April and end on the last Sunday in October.
Just to prove they were worth the votes, the congress of 1986 decided to change things again. They added the “2 AM” rule, where time changes were made nationwide per time zone at 2 Am. Just to make things even more uniform.
In 2005, another change was made…they made it even longer – to quote Stewie, “Thanks a pant load!” It was to start on the Second Sunday in March, take that April, and end on the First Sunday of November. I suppose it allowed all the Halloween revelers to drink an hour more. This is when Indiana finally drank the kool-ade and set the clocks ahead.
Those crazies in Arizona are still fighting the battle against it. I suppose they have enough heat out there.
Ben Franklin is credited in some cases with “inventing” DST. Much like Al Gore’s invention of the internet, this is not really fact. He did suggest while the American Envoy in Paris, that the Parisians save candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight -wax shortage? His invention cred probably comes from that. And after all, he was the father of the adage “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Modern DST was proposed by G. V. Hudson, a New Zealander with time on his hands. He was an entomologist who collected bugs, and he liked the idea of after work daylight time. Like I said, he had time and probably bug doo doo on his hands. This also where the “fist-bump” was first used.
In reality, Daylight Savings Time and all other standard times like Time Zones and such were created by necessity, you know, the Mother of Invention. No, not Zappa, Railroads. Once Europe, The Orient Express, and the United States started crisscrosssing continents with rails, standard schedules were quite necessary. Afterall, even Mussolini kept the trains running on time.
Even today there are many countries who say, “Fagetaboutit!
Blue = DST, Orange = We quit using it, Red = We never used it.
DST brings mixed feelings. There are positive economic effects, retailers and sports producers love it. Farmers love it. Public safety folks like it because there is more evening light and less cover for crime. But most medical professionals feel it has negative impacts as well. They get all twitchy about the Vitamin D v. Too much Sun Exposure argument. Please ignore the tan.
But as for me, I get UP early, yet it always throws me off for a few days weeks months. Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m pretty grumpy until I get my hour of sleep back in November.
Now you know.
