Time Change

Daylight saving time (DST) wasn’t even on my radar yet. As a result, I did not set my clocks ahead last night before bed. I only clued in when I saw my computer clock was an hour later than the rest of the clocks in my house. Despite “springing ahead,” I’ve felt behind all day today because of my very late start. Every time we change over, I ask myself WHY? We are down to only four months on Standard Time now – so why not just stay on DST? I had heard that it was brought in so that farmers could make maximum use of daylight – but when I looked into the history, I found that that was a myth. It appears that DST was first introduced in Germany in 1916 to take advantage of natural light and conserve fuel during war time. It was introduced in the U.S. in 1918 also to support the war effort. It has been repealed and revised many times over the last century. It is now used in more than 70 countries around the world, but the time periods vary not only by country, but even within the nations. For example, Saskatchewan, Canada remains on Central Standard Time year round, even some cities in the country don’t participate. So why bother? On the west coast we complain about the dark winters, why don’t we stay in the light. I say it’s time for a change on time change. Let’s keep DST year round.