Time is on our side? I started pondering time as I prepared to again change the clocks to adjust for DST. Yes, daylight savings time has an acronym. We spring forward and then this year on November 5th we fall back. It is surprising no one has made a holiday out these annual dates. The Rolling Stones first top ten hit in the US was a version of the song written by Jerry Ragavoy in 1963. Lyrics were added later as the original song was recorded by Kai Winding on the trombone. The Stones are singing about love and relationships. So is time really on our side?
But I digress, in Ancient Rome, time was kept on water clocks that had different scales for different months of the year. At Rome’s latitude the third hour hour from sunrise, hora tertia, started at 9:02 solar time and lasted 44 minutes at the winter solstice but at summer solstice it started at 6:58 and lasted 75 minutes. Wow, not surprising that system was replaced by equal length civil hours. There are a few exceptions where unequal hours are still used-the monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies.
Benjamin Franklin during his time as an American envoy to France utilized the old English proverb, “early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” and anonymously published a letter suggesting Parisians economize on candles by rising earlier to use morning sunlight. Franklin did not propose DST, that bit of genius is attributed to New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work gave him leisure time to collect insects and led him to value after hours daylight. In 1905 William Willett, a prominent English Builder, conceived of DST during a pre breakfast ride, when he observed how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summers day. I identify with Willett, an avid golfer, who also disliked cutting short his round at dusk. Simple solution-advance the clock during summer months. The bill to make it happen in the UK was introduced in 1908 but it did not pass.
There is interesting history as DST came first into prominence when Germany adopted it before WWI and most of Europe followed suit. When that war ended many countries stopped the practice to re institute it in the next Great War. In 1987 several large corporations led the coalition to extend DST-both Idaho Senators voted in favor based on the premise that during DST fast food restaurants sell more French fries, which back then were made from Idaho potatoes. Proponents argue DST saves energy, promotes outdoor leisure activity in the evening and is therefore good for physical and psychological health. Opponents argue that energy savings are inconclusive and that DST increases health risks such as heart attack. Now you know the rest of the story.
A few notable thoughts on time. “If time is truly on our side, there’ll be no tears to cry on down the road.” For those of us boomers, “Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” A DST skeptic with a sense of humor said “I love turning the clock back so it gets dark by 4 p.m. said no one ever.”
I hope you find a way to make every minute count this week end.