In a few short weekends Daylight Saving Time and the dread “Spring Forward” returns. That day when an hour of our day is taken from us, not coincidentally mind you, while we are asleep. Something like 2 am is the official time to move your clocks forward one hour. We go to sleep in one world and awake in another, often late for church, brunch, or other Sunday activities. I awake with a sadness that my day is one hour shorter and find myself watching the clock and silently cursing the evil DST.
I’ve read a lot on the origins of DST. One theory holds that it was a joke by Benjamin Franklin – one he never meant be adopted. Regardless of the original intent, Daylight Saving Time (no ‘s’ on the end of saving) or Summer Time as it is known outside the US has become a part of our lives but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Yes, the logical part of me knows spring forward means it will be light when I get home at night and as we move toward summer and our relationship to the sun changes, it will be light later and later. When I was a kid I will confess I LOVED this. I remember playing outside until late in the evening and it was still light; that beautiful summer, 9 pm “dusk” sort of light. To the young Christine it was glorious but the “old” Christine views it through a different lens.
Interested in learning more about DST?
- Rationale & History
- Obstacles
- First there was Standard Time
- Early Adoption & Law in US
- Worldwide Daylight Saving
I did receive some interesting news today out of Olympia, WA. Apparently, there are some lawmakers who would like Washington to cease springing forward and falling back (read the article). If adopted, Washington would join Arizona and Hawaii (currently the only two states that don’t observe DST) in year-round standard time. This taxpayer would embrace such a change. Until that blessed day, I will just have to grumble my way through “spring forward” (coming up on March 8th this year) and hope that the “wonder of late night dusk” magically transports me back to that time when play was outside, seat belt’s were optional, and bicycles were ridden without a helmet. Yes, the “good ole days” when you were kicked out of the house after breakfast, to play in the neighborhood all day long….
