HAT TIPS
Hello,
I guess it was Ben Franklin’s idea to do this time change deal. Ben had a lot of good ideas. And he liked the ladies. Which has nothing to do with this story, but I found it interesting. But I’m not sure we ever saved enough candles to make this deal worth the effort.
I spend about a month in the fall telling Shirley “it’s really nine o’clock, not eight,” when I head for bed. Then about a month in the spring, saying, “it’s really eight o’clock” when I head for bed. I’m kind of a go-to-bed-early guy.
Now, Ben invented daylight savings time to save candles. You would really think a guy as smart as Old Ben would have realized that you couldn’t fool the sun by changing the clock. But, I suppose when he got that shock from that kite, it kind of screwed things up. Did I ever tell you about the time I had Shirley hold that kite during that storm? Remind me to do that some time.
Then the argument comes up about Central and Mountain Time. I’ve lived on the border of these times most of my life. Where crossing the Little Missouri changes the time. We used to call it “white man time” and “reservation time” when you were lining up riders for a roundup. Just to make sure everyone was synchronized on what time to meet. Kind of like Mission Impossible guys looking at their watches.
I do know one thing, when you play pinochle on Mountain time, and get home on Central time, it is a darn long day! But that too is another story.
So, I’ve given this deal a lot of thought for a lot of years. Grandpa always said that Daylight Savings Time was invented to give town guys time to play a round of golf after work in the summer. He wasn’t much of a golf fan. I guess people didn’t just sneak away from work like the guys I know do now.
So my idea is, instead of making the whole world change to fit the golfing schedule, just change the time you open your store! Like winter hours and summer hours. We could adjust to that pretty easily. At least I can.
I mean like now, you take a store that opens at nine, well that’s really ten. I like an early dinner, so they are opening about the time I’m leaning towards lunch. And then after lunch I like to lay down for a little bit. Then happy hour is right around the corner. You see what I mean. First thing you know, you’ve wasted a whole day.
There is a barber in Minot that opens at 5:30 a.m. Central every morning. Now that is 4:30 a.m. my time. And sometimes that is 3:30 a.m. I like a lot of things, but I don’t like hair down my neck at 3:30 in the morning. But I have to admire someone who is consistent. Dad says he can get his haircut, and be back to Berthold when the café opens at six.
I’ve got to go feed calves. They haven’t adjusted their clocks yet.
Later,
Dean