ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT INTERVIEW ON TITANIC

Monday, November 3, 2014

Daylight Savings Tme ...Do We Need It Still?

Getting up at five thirty I appreciate the fact that by six the sun has appeared. And I can thank Woodrow Wilson and FDR And WWI and WWII. Billed as energy conservation and giving people an extra hour of daylight these plans were a way for countries to conserve energy during the war. During World War II it was called War Time. The necessity for this must have been dire because it caused a lot of problems for railroads radio stations and local government,.

No computers. Everyone had their own time. And so the implementation was not real efficient. Some municipalities did not adjust and they had different time than every one else. During World War I Daylight Savings Time was implemented then repealed. People didn't like it because they got up earlier than we do and went to bed earlier. I guess they didn't like that extra hour of light in the spring and they didn't like getting up in the dark.

But now it really has no function at all except to trip us off to the fact that winter is coming. And it is going to get dark really early in the day say around four PM. The ritual of it really is the payoff in the spring. We find it amazing after all that darkness than it will still be light at nine PM. So we put ourselves through self imposed darkness for a daylight payoff.

Maybe it is simply this; spring would not be spring without springing forward.

Real Santa...What would you do for your kids?



 

Books by William Hazelgrove