Those of us who remember the days before Daylight Saving Time are or soon will be in the minority. Back then a large percentage of the population of this country was involved in farming. Your day revolved around the rising and setting of the sun. We did not call it Daylight Saving Time when, as the days got longer we would also get up earlier in the morning and would also have more daylight in the evening. We called it SUMMERTIME. We did not have to change our time pieces ever six months.
If we had some special event to attend we either got up earlier or delayed a project we had planned for that day and took in that event. We were not regimented to standing in an assembly line day after day from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon. We worked hard but we also had the freedoms that many workers in those days did not have. It was after World War 2 that most states adopted Daylight Savings Time.
Encyclopedia Britannica says:
Daylight Savings was first suggested in a whimsical essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. In 1907 an Englishman, William Willett, campaigned for setting the clock ahead by 80 minutes in four moves of 20 minutes each during the spring and summer months. In 1908 the House of Commons rejected a bill to advance the clock by one hour in the spring and return to Greenwich Mean (standard) Time in the autumn.
Several countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, adopted summer daylight saving time during World War I to conserve fuel by reducing the need for artificial light. During World War II, clocks were kept continuously advanced by an hour in some nations--e.g., in the United States from Feb. 9, 1942, to Sept. 30, 1945; and England used "double summer time" during part of the year, advancing clocks two hours from the standard time during the summer and one hour during the winter months.
In the United States, daylight saving time formerly began on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. In 1986 the U.S. Congress passed a law moving up the start of daylight saving time to the first Sunday in April, while keeping its end date the same. In most of the countries of western Europe, daylight saving time starts on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in September. In Britain and many other countries worldwide, it lasts from March 30 to October 26.
In accordance with new rules within the European Union, the daylight
savings time in Europe is changed to be in effect from 02:00 on the last
Sunday in March to 02:00 on the last Sunday in
October (with very few exceptions). In the USA, the daylight savings time
starts on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October.
For more information go to:
http://www.gar.no/news/n960930a.htm
Don't forget to "Spring Ahead" on April 4th Have a Lovely Easter.