Why Do We Put up with DST?

I am not a fan of Daylight savings Time (DST). Springing the time forward in the Spring and falling back an hour in the fall has always sounded ridiculous to me. Messing with my internal clock twice a year makes me decidedly grumpy. I am not the only one. I feel sorry for dairy cows and farmers who either adjust the schedules of their animals or adjust their own schedules. Milk at 6 am? Nope. That changes twice a year.

 No one in the USA thought up DST. The idea was developed overseas. The USA didn’t join the march to this plan to one-up nature until other European nations accepted it. DST came to America in 1918 a year after we entered WW I.

 Many states resisted, including Wisconsin citizens with valid reasons for saying, “No, thank you.” However, after WW II when more and more states signed onto the plan, it got harder for resisting states to hold back. I lived in Wisconsin in the mid-1950s. My father had a church in Siren. I imagine I echoed my father’s disdain for DST. To my young mind, the whole was foolish.

 Wisconsin resisted DST until 1957. Dad took a church in Wyoming, and we moved in 1958. Wyoming had a strange on-and-off situation until DST became a permanent fixture in 1973. DST wasn’t the reason for our move, but it was nice not to be concerned about it while we lived there.

 That early position of dislike stayed with me as I grew up, even as Dad was called to other churches in other states—some followed DST. Generally, Dad served smaller, often country churches, where many farmers, of that time, did not care much for what they saw as government overreach and interference. DST seemed to cause more problems than it helped.

 More than once I heard those opposed saying that DST was created for fat cats who wanted sunlight after work so they could golf. I still wonder how far wrong such a point of view is. Losing an hour in Spring is the most frustrating and takes the most adjustment for me.

 I am glad our iPads and computers and my watch piece change automatically. Still, we have clocks throughout the house that have to be changed by hand. It is interesting to me that Nebraska didn’t start observing DST until 1970.

 Now many in government want to make DST permanent. Technically, wouldn’t we be back to where we started? How foolish are we? A graphic went the rounds of Facebook when it was time to change clocks. A wise elderly Indian was pictured. The text went something like this. Only white men would think cutting off the top of a blanket and sewing it to the bottom would produce a longer blanket. That’s the point.

 Doesn’t the government have more important issues than DST?

© 2023 Carolyn R Scheidies
Published 11/21/2023 Kearney Hub

Feel free to share