The end of Daylight Savings Time


Everyone I know hates the idea of "Spring Ahead" and "Fall Back". That is, having to switch your clocks to change from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time and back and forth and back and forth. And since I'm in Arizona, which doesn't do that, we remain on Standard Time, which was established in the United States in 1883 in response to the confusion caused by nobody really knowing what time it was when they needed to take a train somewhere across the country.

Before Standard Time, and the establishment of Time Zones (I'm in Mountain Time, by the way, since I'm in Arizona) it really was a jumble. But most people really didn't mind back then, they simply looked at when the sun was highest, and that was noon. When it got dark, they got ready to go to bed, and when the sun came up they got up. If they traveled somewhere they would ask the locals what time it was, and then they would know. Of course, that's no way to run a modern industrialized country, so all that had to change, and Standard Time was implemented.

This morning I was talking to a friend of mine who now lives in Pennsylvania, and he mentioned that some people like the idea of being on Standard Time (which switched back from Daylight Savings Time today) because the kids don't have to stand out in the dark waiting for the bus. And then I saw someone on TikTok mentioned that where they lived (didn't catch that), the sun went down about four pm. And I recall growing up in Minneapolis, where the day was starting to get dark even earlier than that. That's Standard Time.

Speaking for myself, the effect of Standard Time and Daylight Savings time in California, where a lot of my friends live, meant that for much of the year even though I'm in a different time zone (they're in the Pacific Time Zone), it was the same time in both places. Then in the winter I'd have to remember that they're in a different time zone and not to call too early. Arizona doesn't do Daylight Savings Time, except for in the Navajo Nation.

The idea of time zones really makes sense for a country as large as the United States, and I'm all for it. When Daylight Savings Time is finally eliminated, which it will be, it will make even more sense, and be one less thing for all of us to have to worry about.
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