In the 1700’s, Ben Franklin proposed something radical. He stated that people were burning their candles at night and slept past dawn during the summer months. That was wasting early-morning sunlight. I suppose they were sitting up at night, watching their favorite British comedies on the “telly,” while popping popcorn in their fireplaces, and sleeping in instead of tending to their crops. Anyway, “Old Ben” proposed Daylight Saving Time.

One should note here that the proper term is “Saving Time” in the singular. Most folks, myself included, incorrectly call it “Savings Time.” But, we do live in the South, so if we prefer “Savings,” then that is ok.

The early “Colonial’s” scoffed at “Benny’s” wild idea, and never enacted Daylight Saving Time (DST). I suppose that’s why one will not find any farms in Philadelphia these days. Everyone slept in too late and lost their farms. It wasn’t until World War I that we chose to adopt DST. During World War I, DST was an effort by the United States and other warring countries to conserve fuel. In theory, DST saves fuel and energy because it reduces the need for artificial light.

Initially, DST was a real headache. One could go from Ohio to Chicago by train, and go through thirty time zones. That is because states or cities could adopt whichever time they preferred. That really messed with any attempt to keep the trains on schedule.

It’s a lot simpler now. We only have two states that don’t participate: Hawaii and New Mexico. Hawaii is near the equator, so their days stay pretty constant year-round. New Mexico gets up to 120 degrees in the summer months. No one wants to have to use more of the available daylight in that kind of heat.

This Sunday, March 14th, we go back to DST. I guess I don’t mind going back to DST because an hour will be about the only thing I’ve been able to save all year. But like most folks, I just wish they would leave our time alone. Daylight Saving Time always brings a spike in heart attacks during the first week. It could be the loss of a hour’s sleep according to doctors. Data has also shown that DST reduces lethal car crashes. In fact, it was concluded that by observing DST year round, we could prevent 366 traffic deaths yearly.

It seems the Einsteins within our society have a problem understanding DST completely. It wasn’t long ago that an Alabama State Legislator proposed bringing an end to DST. His reason was that the extra hour of daylight was “a-burnin up my maters.” I thought that was really funny until I noted that the same attitudes have prevailed in almost every other State House as well. With some of the ridiculous statements that have come out of Nashville, I'm afraid to research what has been said about DST up there.

A few years ago, a well meaning soul in Ringgold sent a letter to the editor of our local newspaper. His complaint was that the extra hour of daylight was the cause of global warming. I laughed until I cried at that one, until I discovered he wasn’t too far off the mark. It seems with the extra hour of people outside grilling, driving home from work, playing golf, going on vacation, boating, etc. we are now using more energy than we are saving. More CO2 in the air equals global warming. I wonder if it gets warm enough, and the polar bears are prowling Market Street, will we be on Daylight Saving Time year-round?

Don’t forget to move your clocks ahead (“Spring Forward”) when you go to bed Saturday night. Also, this is when you should replace the batteries in your smoke detectors. Enjoy the Spring folks. It’s coming quickly and “Riverbend” will be here before we can turn around.

Rod Dagnan
Chattanooga

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Dear Editor:

Thank you for running Roy Dagnan's piece on Daylight Saving Time. I would make only one correction to it. New Mexico does indeed observe Daylight Saving Time. The only state other than Hawaii that does not observe DST is New Mexico's neighbor, Arizona (where it still gets to be 120 degrees in the summer).

Josephine Marie Thane
Red Bank