The "Let's Just Get It Over With And Stop Complaining" Story

It was an ordinary day.  That was until I picked up my morning newspaper and began reading about having to change our clocks this weekend.  Once again, most Americans will set their clocks forward by one hour this weekend, losing perhaps a bit of sleep but gaining more glorious sunlight in the evenings as the days warm into summer.  Where did this all come from, though?  How we came to move the clock forward in the spring, and then push it back in the fall, is a tale that spans more than a century – one that's driven by two world wars, mass confusion at times and a human desire to bask in the sun for as long as possible.  There's been plenty of debate over the practice, but about 70 countries – about 40% of those across the globe – currently use what we Americans call daylight saving time. While springing the clocks forward "kind of jolts our system," the extra daylight gets people outdoors, exercising and having fun.  The really awesome advantage is the bright evenings, right?  It is actually having hours of daylight after you come home from work to spend time with your family or activities. And that is wonderful. Here are some things to know so you'll be conversant about the practice of humans changing time:  In the 1890s, George Vernon Hudson, an astronomer and entomologist in New Zealand, proposed a time shift in the spring and fall to increase the daylight. And in the early 1900s, British home builder William Willett, troubled that people weren't up enjoying the morning sunlight, made a similar push. But neither proposal gained enough traction to be implemented.  At one point, if riders on a 35-mile bus ride from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia, wanted their watches to be accurate, they'd need to change them seven times as they dipped in and out of daylight saving time,  So in 1966, the U.S. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which says that states can either implement daylight saving time or not, but it has to be statewide. The act also mandates the day that daylight saving time starts and ends across the country.  Confusion over the time change isn't just something from the past. In the nation of Lebanon last spring, chaos ensued when the government announced a last-minute decision to delay the start of daylight saving time by a month – until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Some institutions made the change and others refused as citizens tried to piece together their schedules. Within days, the decision was reversed. It really turned into a huge mess where nobody knew what time it was.  What would it be like if we didn't change the clocks?  Changing the clocks twice a year leads to a lot of grumbling, and pushes to either use standard time all year – or stick to daylight saving time all year often crop up.  During the 1970s energy crisis, the U.S. started doing daylight saving time all year long, and Americans didn't like it. With the sun not rising in the winter in some areas til around 9 a.m. or even later, people were waking up in the dark, going to work in the dark and sending their children to school in the dark,.  It became very unpopular very quickly.  And, using standard time all year would mean losing that extra hour of daylight for eight months in the evenings in the United States.  In 1908, the Canadian city of Thunder Bay – then the two cities of Fort William and Port Arthur – changed from the central time zone to the eastern time zone for the summer and fall after a citizen named John Hewitson argued that would afford an extra hour of daylight to enjoy the outdoors, says Michael deJong, curator/archivist at the Thunder Bay Museum.  The next year, though, Port Arthur stayed on eastern time, while Fort William changed back to central time in the fall, which, predictably, "led to all sorts of confusion," deJong says.  Today, the city of Thunder Bay is on eastern time, and observes daylight saving time, giving the area, "just delightfully warm, long days to enjoy" in the summer, says Paul Pepe, tourism manager for Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission.  The city, located on Lake Superior, is far enough north that the sun sets at around 10 p.m. in the summer, Pepe says, and that helps make up for their cold dark winters. Residents, he says, tend to go on vacations in the winter and stay home in the summer: "I think for a lot of folks here, the long days, the warm summer temperatures, it's a vacation in your backyard.  So...this day in history, President FDR re-established daylight saving time in the US.  For 8 months out of the year, the U.S. and dozens of other countries follow daylight saving time, and for the remaining months, they revert back to standard time in order to take full advantage of the sunlight.  On the second Sunday of March at 2 a.m., clocks move forward one hour.  Then on the first Sunday of November at 2 a.m., the clocks turn back an hour.  There's an age-old myth that daylight saving time was adopted to give farmers extra time in the sun to work in the field.  But, that's not really why dozens of countries follow it.  The U.S. didn't standardize daylight saving time until 1966, when it passed the Uniform Time Act.  In the U.S., states are not required by law to follow daylight saving time.  Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe it, while other states - like Florida and California - are working to observe the system year round.  Will our nation ever stop the practice of clock changing?  Should all states have permanent daylight saving time?  I guess only time will tell...and that depends upon what time it might be when they decide!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.