|
|
Dorothy Copus Brush Don't forget to spring
Last week's column on chew sticks as an alternative
for toothbrushes brought a response from Pauline Castleman. She
remembers well using black gum twigs to clean her teeth. A resident
here for 85 years, she was Pauline Morgan before her marriage.
She said, "I was 16 or so before we had toothbrushes." Another remembrance she shared was of her
grandmother. "Grandma always carried a little snuff box
in her apron pocket and it also held a black gum twig. She always
used the twig to clean her teeth after meals." It is a rich reward to hear from readers. * * * This fooling around with time has gone through
a long series of experiments. Ben Franklin is credited with introducing
the idea of later daylight hours. In 1784 he wrote a tongue-in-cheek
essay on the subject. It was accepted as whimsy then but eventually
that seed took root. Time was uncomplicated during the early days
when communities were isolated, but when the railroad came on
the scene in the 1800s it wasn't long until confusion reigned
because of time differences. The chaos was solved after long
debates by the adoption of a system of standard time based on
the Greenwich meridian. It was the need to conserve energy during
World War I that brought time to the forefront again. In 1917
Congress passed the Standard Time Act to give the country later
daylight to save energy. The act was lifted when the war ended. Once again during World War II energy conservation
became a top priority, and Congress brought back daylight-saving
time. Again, at war's end, the mandate was scrapped nationally
but a number of states continued using the system. Soon it was
clear this made a mess because each state made its own rules
as to when the change was made. In those early years only railroad
schedules were effected, but now there were many more modes of
transportation as well as travelers. Finally in 1966 Congress passed the Uniform
Time Act which declared that any state using daylight-saving
time must do so in accordance with the federal schedule. That sensible action worked, and since 1987
the issue has not been discussed. Prior to that there were several
years when various presidents and Congress tried to make changes.
For all the fiddling around the original act prevailed. The politicians left the decision of using
daylight standard time to each state and only Hawaii, Arizona
and the eastern part of Indiana chose not to change their clocks. Many farmers don't accept the theory and call
it daylight nuisance time. Their cows don't go by the clock,
but they know when it's milking time. Just don't forget to set your clocks one hour ahead before you go to bed Saturday night! |