Daylight Saving brings warm weather with it

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The sun is shining brightly this Sunday afternoon. Birds are singing their melodious songs outside of my window. A tiny sparrow is gathering up a scattering of crumbs on the floor of the back porch, a common occurrence these days. All is well with the folks that live at the little blue house at the end of the road. Tootie is taking an afternoon nap, wrapped up in her dragging blanket, in the recliner. Last night we reset all of the clocks, including the one that shouted without words to say, "Do not get me wound up -- touch my hands or my pendulum. I will keep you awake all night!" Did you know that Daylight Saving Time, first observed in 1916 in Europe, became a wartime energy saving measure observed by 70 countries? Springing forward and falling back have become rituals for Americans as well. Ben Franklin, the man with ideas in that regard, did not propose setting clocks and other timepieces forward, in springtime. Rather, he just wanted folks to rise and shine earlier. Franklin described the oil that a lantern used, not the same as the light it gave off. He claimed to save the Parisians 64 million pounds of candles a year. He wanted to put a tax on every shuttered window that kept out sunlight, ring every church bell at sunrise and more. If that failed 'Gentle Ben', wanted to have cannons fired on every street to awaken the sluggards, a big wake-up call, if you will. Then, a fellow named William Willitt came along in 1907, wanting to set the clocks forward 80 minutes, spring and summer. Parliament rejected that idea. We adopted daylight saving time for less than a year in 1918 and 1919. Then we reclaimed it again for four years during World War II. In the latter part of the '60s Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, and brought back daylight saving time. I personally do not mind adjusting to the change. I welcome the extra hour of daylight. When I was a kid, my folks were awake at dawn every morning, sooner than the roosters could drop from the roost to crow. That meant up and at it for the rest of us. It did not matter what transpired with the clock or the seasons. We had as many chores tending Dad's large menagerie of domestic animals and poultry, in the morning as the evening. Once our bellies were full, the screen door slammed behind us and off we went to meet our day, fitting in work, school and play along the way.

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