Daylight Savings Time in Texas
It is that time of the year again when Texas and most of the United States will lose an hour of sleep. Daylight Saving Time begins in Texas at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 13. It ends on November 6, 2011. I am aware that residents in Arizona do not 
participate, but most other states will set their clocks ahead an hour on March 13 – or spring forward one hour – only to fall back an hour in November. And sometimes I even get that part mixed up.
Theoretically, Daylight Saving Time makes use of longer summer days, allowing people to rise earlier and spend more of the day working or playing outside. Fore me, it could mean time spent out on the front porch at the end of the day eating home made chips and salsa with the dogs. And of course, a favorite ice cold drink. Or we might be down on the dock watching the sun set from the banks of the Spring Creek.
In years past the change required all clocks to be reset by hand, but now with anything computerized, from a cell phone to a laptop, many of them move ahead automatically. Most other watches and clocks still need to be reset manually. I do have some automatic changers, but mostly I’m still old school and go around the house looking for watches and clocks to change. I found one clock about a month later still on old time and changed it.
Here’s some history: DST began in 1916 in England during World War I.
In order to conserve resources for the war effort, in 1918 the United States Congress placed the country on Daylight Saving Time for the remainder of WWI. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. The law, however, proved so unpopular that it was later repealed.
When America went to war again in 1941, Congress reinstated Daylight Saving Time on Feb. 9, 1942. Time in the United States was advanced one hour to save energy. It remained advanced one hour forward year-round until Sept. 30, 1945.
From 1945 to 1966, there was no U.S. law about Daylight Saving Time, and states and localities were free to observe Daylight Saving Time or not. There are still old cowboys/ranchers out here in Real Texas who only have a pocket watch and they don’t change it. They say it’s too much trouble to keep up with when they already go from daylight ’till dark and stop to eat when they get hungry instead of consulting a watch. That bunch of old coots is fast disappearing out here where it’s still only semi-civilized.
This, however, caused confusion, especially for the broadcasting industry and for trains and buses. Because of the different local customs and laws, radio and TV stations and the transportation companies had to publish new schedules every time a state or town began or ended DST.
Because of this confusion, the American law by which the clocks are turned forward in the spring and back in the fall was established in 1966 and is known as the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The law does not require that anyone observe Daylight Saving Time; all the law says is that if Daylight Saving Time is going to be observed, it must be done uniformly.
Energy conservation became the primary reason for the summer time change since the 1970s.
The 2011 time change will be observed in different parts of the world, though not at the same times.
The European Union, for example, springs forward on March 27. This requires people in America to subtract an hour from the time difference for two weeks, unless they live in Arizona, Hawaii or one of the U.S. territories, in which case there is no 2011 time change.
From April 1986, Daylight Saving Time started on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. But in 2007, Congress revised the dates to the current March-November calendar in order to extend the energy savings gleaned from earlier rising.
Out here in Real Texas, the horses, cows, and our chickens don’t care much about DST. When it gets dark, the chickens make their way to the roost, climb aboard, do a little jostling for position, and settle down for the night. That’s kinda what the old folks used to do before TV and computers.
I’m David out in Real Texas,
Enjoying the extra daylight out on the porch
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re gonna have to consider me one of the “ol’ coots”. I pretty much hate DST. I would likewise leave my clocks set at the “real” time, but I don’t think it would work if I showed up to court an hour late. Back when I was a Kendall County Commissioner, the County Judge and myself put an item on the agenda for Commissioners Court to abolish DST in Kendall County. We were met with bad press, nasty phone calls and a general consensus that we were wasting the Court’s time, etc., etc. Neither one of us got re-elected, I suppose for this and many, many more reasons; but that’s another story.
Didn’t Benjamin Franklin come up with the idea of DST originally? I seem to remember something like that from one of the National Treasure movies.
Some people still forget to change their clocks. I was preaching at FBC Eldorado yesterday and thought everyone had remembered to change their clocks,,,until we all stood for the benediction and three people walked in,,,with a grin on their faces….Rejoice, J.B.
DST doesn’t bother me at all– it’s a startling reminder of how much of out technology doesn’t run on analog clocks anymore, however. Almost everything automatically updates these days!
I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME HELPED TO BRING ABOUT THE DEMISE OF THAT GREATLY MISSED ROMANTIC LOCATION- THE DRIVE IN MOVIE.