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Benjamin Franklin is to Blame

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Daylight saving time always throws a wrench in my schedule, especially since having kids. It always takes about a week for the kids to adjust to new sleeping patterns, and then there’s always the daylight until 7 o’clock that makes them think we’re crazy to have them start getting ready for bed.

In case you’re wondering how this all started, we can blame Benjamin Franklin. According to Wikipedia article, he was the one who planted the idea back in 1784. Then in 1907 a British golfer who didn’t like his game having to end at dusk actually proposed the idea of changing the clock. By 1918, the US government made it law.

To make it all just a bit more confusing congress passed a law in 2005 to change the start date from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in March–beginning today, March 11, 2007.

For the past 20 years, daylight-saving time has started on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed those dates for this year to the second Sunday of March and the first Sunday of November.(Roanoke Daily Herald, Roanoke Rapids, NC 3/09/07)

Supposedly there will be some sort of tracking of energy costs that will be reported to the congress for them to decide if the change will be permanent. So it looks like this won’t be the end of it!

10 thoughts on “Benjamin Franklin is to Blame”

  1. Isn’t there one state that doesn’t do the time change? Utah maybe? I kind of like how it’s light out later, but oh the getting up an hour earlier for church is such a kick in the pants!

  2. I don’t think Hawaii observed DST, at least not when we were living on the Big Island in the early 90s. Also, I believe parts of Arizona don’t observe it either — can’t remember if it was when we lived in Tucson (1995-96) or in Flagstaff (1999-2002) or both. I wish the change could be made early Saturday instead of early Sunday. Somehow I think it would be an easier switch.

  3. okay, so i didn’t read the whole wikipedia article, but i sort of get the reason for going ON, so why do we ever go OFF. why fall back later? let’s just reset the clocks and be done with it!

  4. You’re right Ruth. Hawaii isn’t on DST. So when I want to call my daughter, it will be 5 hours instead of 4 hours difference. I agree Abby–just leave the clock alone. I suppose there is a good reason for changing it back. You get to find out how many clocks you have–besides you are to change the batteries in you fire detectors. Joanie

  5. There’s also a portion of Indiana that doesn’t observe DST. I don’t know why, but it could have something to do with being close to the dividing line for Central Time and Eastern Time.

    Abby,
    I think we have to set the clocks back the daylight available can be controlled.

  6. My late grandfather, who was a farmer, used to refuse to change his watch. And, my grandmother would forget that he hadn’t changed the time and would have lunch early or late — depending on which time change it was. It made her so mad. I guess when you’re getting up at 3 am to milk your cows no matter what, the whole time change usefulness would tend to be lost on you.

  7. I didn’t realize changing the time went back so long ago… here I was thinking it was just within my lifetime (and I’m not that old!) Interesting.

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