What time is it?

by Kris Neri of the Femmes Fatales

They say great minds think alike. I don’t know if that’s universally true, but sister Femme, Elaine Viets, and I both took issue with time changes lately.

Why do we spring forward and fall back? Why do we go on Daylight Saving Time?

I never saw the point of it, but after living for fourteen years in Arizona — one of two states, along with Hawaii, that doesn’t change times twice a year — it was hard to go back to it. Elaine reported that she felt “off.” I felt sleepy, as if I’d gotten up too early. That first morning seemed so dark, my body yearned to go back to bed.

Arizona’s situation is actually kind of odd. The state does not change times, and the Hopi Homeland, which claims a part of the state, does not, but the Navajo Nation, which claims a much larger part of the state, does. Depending on a traveler’s route, it’s possible for the time to bounce forward and back multiple times. And since cell phones mostly adapt to local times, they know it. When I lived in Sedona, lots of tourists who experienced that told me they thought they were losing their minds. 

Being one of the only places that doesn’t change can also seem problematic. While the local channels do adjust so the times of the local newscasts are the same, all network and cable TV shift an hour. Essentially, for part of the year, Arizona is on Pacific Time, and for the rest of the year, it’s Mountain Time.

Talk about feeling off. But you get used to it. And just when you do, it’s time to change back.

According to my research, the idea of setting clocks forward a hour in the spring and back in the fall was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in an essay, “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light,” which was published in a French journal.

Daylight Saving Time has been used in the US and some European countries since WWI. It wasn’t formally adopted in the US until 1918, however, and even then it largely fell out of favor and wasn’t consistently used. 

That should have told them something.

During WWII, Roosevelt instituted year-round Daylight Saving Time. But after the war, states and municipalities were free to institute it or not, as they chose. You can imagine the confusion that created — the Arizona time-bouncing situation on a grand scale.

It wasn’t until 1966 that a uniform system was instituted, though the start dates have changed since then.

The rationale has always been to conserve the fuel necessary to create electricity.

Growing up I’d always been told that we changed times to benefit family farmers, to give more sunlight hours after school when the kids could help out in the fields. I learned that bit of wisdom from my mother, though, apparently, it’s an old wives’ tale (Well, she was an old wife.).

It seems agriculture has always opposed changing times. It doesn’t benefit farmers. Livestock, such as dairy cows, don’t understand why their milking times should change. All animals expect to be fed when they usually have. It also means that crops picked before the sun comes up need a longer time for the morning dew to dry. 

Living for a long time in a state that doesn’t change times, and in a town that attracts millions of tourists, I’ve had countless discussions about it. Most of the people in my unscientific sampling believe DST to be unnecessary. 

But a small minority love it. Such as chambers of commerce. Turns out it’s been documented that when we have more daylight hours, we spend more money in stores and on outdoor activities. 

Once a man told me that he liked DST because otherwise his daughter would be waiting for the school bus in the dark. I almost cracked up, although I did manage not to embarrass him. It’s actually the exact opposite — it is darker in the morning during DST. I’m guessing he never really took her to the bus stop. Maybe that was mom’s job.

Personally, I agree what what’s said to be a Native American reaction: When told about Daylight Saving Time, and old Indian supposedly said: “Only the government would believe that if you cut off a foot at the top of the blanket, sew it onto the bottom, you’ll have a longer blanket.” 

Sounds right to me. 

Where do you fall on the Daylight Saving Time debate?

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Comments

[Mark]

It gets light earlier in the winter mornings. That may be what the man met. But yes, right after we spring forward, it is dark in the morning when we get up.

Personally, I love having enough light to go for a run after work before it gets dark. Without DST, I don’t see the sun on work days in the winter. There’s a little as I drive to work and on my lunch break, but it’s dark when I get off at night.

[krisneri]

Mark, I can see what light later in the day would benefit some people. I guess there's no way to make us all happy with the light situation.

[krisneri]

Correction: I can see that light later in the day would benefit some people.

[Deb Romano]

I love and adore DST! I have so much more energy, and manage to accomplish more when the sun sets later. Very little gets accomplished around here during standard time; I’m mainly moping around in the dark. For a few years a long time ago I commuted to a job in another part of the state. I had to leave home before the sun came up and I did not get home until after sunset, so I never really saw my neighborhood except on weekends. It felt surreal.

[krisneri]

Deb, I can see how important that would be to you.