DRINKWALTER: Daylight Savings Time and "Chess" pains

Columns

November 1, 2009

Anonymous The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sun Nov 01, 2009, 12:41 AM EDT

LOCKPORT — Daylight Saving Time ended and Eastern Standard Time began at 2 a.m. today. I’m tired already!

The darkness seems bleaker in the wee hours of the morning. Recently, our cat, Chessie, devised a new method of waking us up in the morning. One or both of us get 9 pounds of fluffy white fur standing firmly on our chests purring at 5:30 a.m. Great — that will now become 4:30 a.m.

Most of us find time changes confusing. Just remember: In the fall, we fall back; in the spring, we spring forward.

Benjamin Franklin was the inventor of Daylight Saving Time with a satirical essay he wrote on the subject in 1784. Then in 1907, an English builder, William Willett, proposed a bill to implement the concept, but was ridiculed for it. It never came to fruition in either of their lifetimes.

Daylight Saving Time was established in the U.S. in March 1918, and was appealed in 1919. Germany went with the concept during World Word I, soon after other European countries followed suit. The U.S. began practicing daylight saving once again during World War II; however, Arizona and Hawaii don’t participate in daylight saving.

This is what I found, according to the Daylight Saving Web site: webexhibits.org/

daylightsaving/b.html)

“The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time.”

Saving is used here as an adjective. It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, and Daylight Time Shifting more accurate, but neither is politically desirable.

In the U.S., 2 a.m. was originally chosen as the changeover time because it was practical and minimized disruption. Most people were at home, and this was the time when the fewest trains were running. It is late enough to minimally affect bars and restaurants, and it prevents the day from switching to yesterday, which would be confusing. It is early enough that the entire continental U.S. switches by daybreak, and the changeover occurs before most early shift workers and early churchgoers are affected.

Halloween trick-or-treaters

Through 2006, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. ended a few days before Halloween (Oct. 31). Children’s pedestrian deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of the year. A new law to extend DST to the first Sunday in November took effect in 2007, with the purpose of providing trick-or-treaters more light, and therefore more safety from traffic accidents. For decades, candy manufacturers lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, because many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark. Thus an added hour of light means a big holiday treat for the candy industry.

Deb Drinkwalter is a Lockport resident. Her column appears every Sunday. Contact Deb at d.drinkwalter@yahoo.com.

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