By Dale Jones
Editor
Change isn’t always bad. Really, it’s not.
I’ve always heard that “old people” hate change. Great! That must mean that even though I turned the big 5-0 last November, I must not be old because I’m totally okay with change.
I’ve really never understood why we “spring forward” and “fall back” each year due to this thing we call daylight saving time, but add me to the list of people who like it.
Driving in to work on Monday, I listened to a couple of radio guys rant and rave about how horrible it is and that we should have abandoned it a long time ago.
Growing up, I always looked forward to both time changes. I loved the extra hour of daylight in the evening during the spring and summer. Who wouldn’t? And I enjoyed the earlier darker days during the fall and winter as we moved into the holiday season.
According to what I’ve read, the initial concept behind the time change was to keep people from having to burn candles longer than necessary. Later, it was considered an energy saving mechanism.
As for some of the other unusual facts, who knows if we can truly attribute them to changing our clocks back and forth an hour?
Supposedly, it can cause lower SAT scores because it messes with students sleep schedules. Another study suggests that it causes a spike in reported heart attacks in the week after springing forward, possibly due to sleep loss.
Supposedly, there is a reduction in fatal car crashes because of the additional daylight, which makes for safer roads. Seriously?
To me, moving our clocks forward, then back, during certain times of the year is really no big deal. I almost find all the attention it gets amusing.
It’s kind of like when David Letterman said “Don’t forget it’s daylight saving time. You spring forward, then you fall back. It’s like Robert Downey Jr. getting out of bed.”
But there are opponents of this whole thing that continue to fight what I see as a pointless fight.
Some states don’t recognize it. Others are trying to pass bills to get it to stop.
I mean, is all of this necessary?
As a kid, I remember this sweet little old lady at our church who would literally wake up at 2 a.m. to change her clock. Poor thing.
Bottom line is this. It’s a great way to remember to check the filter on your air conditioning unit or to check the batteries in your smoke detector.
There are too many real issues in our lives that need attention. Moving our clocks back and forth an hour, two times per year is probably not one of them.