Standard Time — When Do You Turn Back Your Clocks?
The days are getting shorter, the sun is setting earlier, isn't it about time to change the clocks back to Standard Time? When do you turn back the clocks?
You know it had to be a man that started messing with the clocks, right?! Why start a new project when you can hijack something that has already been done and improve it. Okay, so maybe this writer is having just a little too much fun with that, but regardless if it was intended for the farmers, the railroad or for war, it still has a huge impact on today's life. And the time change can really mess with some people, even throw them off their game for days up to and after the day. (not to mention what it does to naughty kids that blame it in the fall for missing curfew)
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE TIME CHANGE
- Benjamin Franklin is credited for the idea, but in actuality he really just wasn't happy with the sun rising and awakening him, so he proposed that people make more use of the sun time hours and adjust their sleep patterns, not turn the clock/time system upside down.
- There is no S in Daylight Saving Time, but many still say Daylight SavingS Time
- In 1916, Germany was the first to adjust the time in the Spring (the U.S. began switching the clocks in March of 1918 as a wartime measure)
- The time change was NOT put into action for the Farmer as most believe. The sun had always dictated the farmers schedule and they were actually quite upset at the time change and the delay it cause in their day. (retail and recreation has driven the time change more than anything else)
- Even after a repeal in 1919 many still switched their clocks in the Spring and Fall. National Daylight Saving Time was enforced across the land in WWII and afterwards each state was left to participate or not. In 1963, Time Magazine called the 'movement' a "Chaos of Clocks". The Uniform Time Act went into effect in 1966 and although most all states participate a few remain on Standard Time year round.
Colorado will return to Standard Time Nov. 2, 2014. If it's easier to remember, the clocks are set ahead one hour the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November every year, Spring forward and Fall back.