Bad Timing

"MODERN TIMES"

BAD TIMING

Lloyd Garver

We've just survived the first week of being back on Standard Time. If you don't hate it now, you will in a few months. In the middle of winter, when it's already cold and dark, does it make any sense to have it be cold and dark an hour earlier? Do kids need to come home from school in the dark at 4:30 in the afternoon? Do we need to drive home from work by moonlight?

Like so many other things, our government has this backwards: we don't need another hour of sunlight in the summer when we already have more sunlight. We need it in the winter. The way it is now, while we don't get to enjoy extra daylight on winter afternoons, we do have the benefit of all that sunshine while we are sleeping in the morning. Or, as a lot of us experience -- we have the benefit of that sunlight streaming into our bedrooms early in the morning, waking us up.

The timing of switching to Standard Time could not be worse. It's always right before Halloween. Why are we sending kids out trick-or-treating when it gets dark an hour earlier than a week before? Is getting back on Standard Time so important that it couldn't wait a week or so?

The old "spring forward and fall backwards" slogan is easy enough for me to remember. But the night of The Big Switch, I'm always tossing and turning in bed, trying to remember or figure out whether I'm gaining or losing an hour's sleep. Of course, I lose at least an hour tossing and turning.

Not only do we have to change all the clocks, but we have to reset all the things that have clocks -- cars, televisions, stoves, microwaves, and answering machines. And there are always some clocks that we miss. Then, a few days later, when we come across one of them in the middle of the night, we panic, not knowing if we should trust our watch or that dusty, little clock. The biggest challenge for me is trying to reset my digital watch. I can never remember which buttons to push and in what order. So, I push a few buttons and end up somehow setting the alarm and changing the clock to 24-hour military time. The good news is, I don't have to reset the clock on my VCR. It always has a dependable flashing 12:00.

Moving the clock around by one hour was first done in America during World War I. The theory was that if there were more natural light when people were awake doing things, they would use less artificial light and conserve energy. It worked, so it was adopted again during World War II and then off and on until it became law in most states in 1966.

Daylight Saving Time was used year-round in World War I and II and for two years in the Seventies during the oil crisis. I don't know if year-round is the answer, but I think winter should get at least as much help from cheating the night as summer. I don't like having to eat extra fast just to make sure I finish my lunch before dark.

I could go on about this, but I have to stop now. For one thing, my digital watch has started dinging and I don't know how to stop it. More importantly, I need to get to bed early tonight. I'm getting up around 4:00 tomorrow morning to start working on my tan.