THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510280026
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
When we switch from daylight-saving to standard time tonight, you'll get back the hour of sleep cruelly stolen last spring.
Remember, just before you go to bed, turn back your clocks one hour and while you're at it change the batteries in your smoke detectors. According to the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the smoke detector is missing or not working in three-fourths of fatal fires nationwide. It is the single most effective tool for surviving a home fire. Of the 1,100 children under age 15 who die in house fires annually, 90 percent are in homes without working smoke detectors.
Secure in the knowledge that your smoke detector is functioning, and with your clocks properly turned back, you'll sleep better and longer. Or maybe not longer, if you have kids.
Changing the time has become more of a pain with the advent of digital watches and clocks. With them, you can't just spin the hour hand back an hour. You first have to tear the house apart looking for the instructions. We know a man who can't adjust his digital watch, so it's only right half the year. The other six months he subtracts an hour from whatever time it says. He'd be smart to have two watches - one set on daylight-saving, the other on standard - and simply switch watches every six months.
From the late '40s through early '60s in these parts, some people did wear two watches, one set on standard, the other on daylight-saving. In 1948, for example, the city of Norfolk was on daylight-saving time, but many state and federal agencies and most transportation systems, except for the municipal one, were not. Some homes had clocks set on two times, if one person's job was on one time and the other person's job was on the other.
Whether or not to go to daylight-saving time used to be a hot question. Some years more than 100 newspaper stories concerned that topic. Typical headlines read, ``Rotarians in Favor of Daylight Time,'' and ``Women Democrats Join 17 Other Groups on Record in Support of Daylight Saving.''
The Ledger-Dispatch (later the Ledger-Star) used to run a box score showing which organizations opposed or favored daylight-saving. Generally the working class opposed it, seeing it as a plot by the leisure class to gain more leisure for themselves. Farmers opposed it, saying their cows gave milk on God's time, and no other.
In the summer of 1961, one-third of Virginians were on daylight-saving time and two-thirds weren't. About half the nation was, especially the Northeast, and half the nation wasn't, especially the South and West.
Finally in 1966 Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, providing for six months of daylight-saving time.
Incidentally, daylight-saving time was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. He was the genius, you may recall, who flew a kite in a thunderstorm. by CNB