The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
10-21-2013 - Column
Daylight saving time has officially come to an end for the year.
It will now take me at least a couple of months to adjust and then it starts all over again. At least in the fall it feels like I’m getting more things done, but I’m also starting earlier, an hour earlier according to the clock.
We have discovered over the years we just need to keep the cows to our own time schedule and let the rest of the world keep switching back and forth. We used to switch the cows’ milking time to fit the clock, now we just milk when we always do year round, regardless of what time the clock at the end of the barn is pointing to. It is dark when we start and dark when we end. At least we don’t feel like we’re wasting time in the barn because the sun is still shining.
When daylight saving time comes or goes, the questions start.
"What time is it? Is that “new time” or “old time”?
Our minds are constantly doing mathematical gymnastics as we try to convert the time to the new schedule.
I have four clocks in the kitchen alone and none of them agree. Some are off an hour, others are off by 5 or 10 minutes, others by an hour and extra minutes. Despite our tricks to be on time, we always seem to be running behind schedule.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is one of those things you can love and hate at the same time.
I have finally figured out time springs forward in the spring, and falls back in the fall, but why?
We can thank Benjamin Franklin and the railroad companies for getting us all on the same time schedule. The original daylight saving time idea is credited to Franklin in 1784. He is also credited with the phrase, “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”.
"Ben" figured if we moved the clocks ahead in the spring time, people wouldn’t sleep in and waste daylight hours. It wasn’t necessarily saving time as it was shifting an hour of daylight from the beginning of the day to the end. Franklin’s purpose was to make better use of the daylight hours. No one took his idea seriously until World War I.
Before DST could be implemented, time had to be standardized across the country. In the late 1880’s, every town had its own time according to the sun or the local clock. Time was generally set by the courthouse clock tower with a time face pointing in each of the four directions for all to see. The chiming bells told those who couldn’t see the community clock what time it was. It was a simple way to tell time for a local community, but a nightmare for the developing railroad companies. Since very few towns had the same set time, it was hard to determine arrival and departure times. In 1883 the railroad companies standardized time in cities along their routes, but many outlying communities still relied upon the position of the sun to tell time.
In 1918 The United States established standardized time zones and Daylight Saving Time to conserve energy during W.W.I. After the war ended, DST proved to be so unpopular that it was repealed in 1919. The largest opposition was by farmers. They wanted daylight left in the morning hours. Making the day last longer just meant you had to work longer. Heaven forbid that you quit working while there is still daylight!
Daylight Saving Time has continued to evolve over the years but not always with ease. During the 50’s and 60’s there was widespread confusion when each community or state could start and end DST as it desired. On one bus route between Moundsville, WV and Steubenville, OH, passengers had to change their watches 7 times on a 35 mile trip. In 1965 St. Paul decided to begin DST early to conform to the rest of the nation. Minneapolis felt it should follow Minnesota state laws which stipulated a later date. It must have been confusing for U of MN students to make it to classes on time depending upon which side of the river your classes were held.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to establish a uniform start and ending date of DST throughout the country. During the height of the 1973 oil shortage, Congress extended DST from 6 months to 8 months. It is estimated it resulted in the savings of 10,000 barrels of oil each day. By moving the starting date from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April in 1986 resulted in saving 300,000 barrels of oil each year.
The most recent change to DST came in 2007 when it was extended to the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. This shift was pushed through by concern for the safety of children trick or treating. By ending DST after Halloween, there will be more daylight hours in the evening for youngsters to collect even more candy! Political junkies think the shift will also impact voter turn-out with more daylight in the evening hours. 2021 will be the first year when DST ends after the elections and researchers can test their theory.
All I know is I now have to wait to feed young stock until there is enough daylight to make sure everyone is it up to the bunk to eat but I’m back in the house for my breakfast at a much earlier hour as long as I do chores on “old time” and check the clock for the day on “new time”. As John Wayne says in my favorite movie “The Cowboys”…”we’re burning daylight” so I better get moving.
Dates and facts from www.webexhibits
-----------------------
As their 4 children pursue dairy careers off the farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their Minnesota farm. (Natalie grew up in Stronghurst, the daughter of Becky and the late Larry Dowell.)
----------------------