Posted on 03/16/2022 10:08:39 AM PDT by PROCON
The sun rose at 8:27 AM on January 7, 1974. Children in the Washington area had left for school in the dark that morning, thanks to a new national experiment during a wrenching energy crisis: most of the US went to year-round daylight saving time beginning on January 6. “It was jet black” outside when her daughter was supposed to leave for school, Florence Bauer of Springfield told the Washington Post. “Some of the children took flashlights with them.”
The change would benefit Americans in the long run, predicted Steve Grossman of the Department of Transportation. Yes, accidents in the morning darkness may become more common, he said, but longer daylight hours could mean eliminating the hazards of evening commutes: “stress, anxiety, and many drivers have had a couple of drinks,” as he told the Post. Outside the capital, others vowed defiance: Robert Yost, the mayor of St. Francis, Kansas said his town’s council “felt it was time to put our foot down and stop this monkey business.”
Now as the idea of permanent daylight saving time has gained some political momentum, it’s probably worth a look back to another period when the US tinkered with time.
Congress had voted on December 14, 1973, to put the US on daylight saving time for two years. President Nixon signed the bill the next day. The US had gone to permanent daylight saving time before, during World War II. Then, too, the measure was enacted to save fuel. Permanent DST wasn’t close to the wackiest idea about time floating around—Paul Mullinax, a geographer who worked at the Pentagon, came up with the idea of putting the continental US on a single time zone. “USA Time” would apply from Bangor to Barstow, eliminate jet lag, and standardize TV schedules. His idea even got traction in Congress, via a bill from US Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii. “The human being is a very adaptive animal,” he said. “There is no reason we have to be a slave to the sun.”
And yet the early-morning darkness quickly proved dangerous for children: A 6-year-old Alexandria girl was struck by a car on her way to Polk Elementary School on January 7; the accident broke her leg. Two Prince George’s County students were hurt in February. In the weeks after the change, eight Florida kids were killed in traffic accidents. Florida’s governor, Reubin Askew, asked for Congress to repeal the measure. “It’s time to recognize that we may well have made a mistake,” US Senator Dick Clark of Iowa said during a speech in Congress on January 28, 1974. In the Washington area, some schools delayed their start times until the sun caught up with the clock.
The factual picture was a bit more complicated. The National Safety Council reported in February that pre-sunrise fatalities had risen to 20 from 18 the year before. In July, Roger Sant, then an assistant administrator-designate for the Federal Energy Administration, wrote a letter to the Post that noted a 1 percent energy saving achieved by going to DST equated to 20,000-30,000 tons of coal not being burned each day. Further, he wrote, accidents had fallen in the afternoons.
By August, though, as the Watergate scandal caused the Nixon administration to crumble, the country was ready to move on from its clock experiments. While 79 percent of Americans approved of the change in December 1973, approval had dropped to 42 percent three months later, the New York Times reported. Seven days after President Nixon resigned, US Senator Bob Dole of Kansas introduced an amendment in August that would end the DST experiment. It passed. A similar bill passed the House. In late September, the full Congress passed a bill that would restore standard time on October 27. President Ford signed it on October 5. Energy savings, a House panel noted, “must be balanced against a majority of the public’s distaste for the observance of Daylight Saving Time.”
I’m sure our brightest minds can figure out how to shift the earths axis to be perpendicular to the solar plane. That fixes everything.
Absolutely, It was TERRIBLE!! Leave it alone. If you cant adjust to a one hour time change twice a year, move to where they don’t have it.
I heard there’s been a cougar spotted at the bus stop down the hill. He might appreciate the darkness.
I was living in the woods isolated after coming back to the States - time was from sun up to sun down, with no particular notice in between.
Notice how the bad effects only are recounted for the East Coast?
The press propagandized the issue. People didn’t hate it.
You are correct. I did not spellcheck.
Now get yourself under congtrol.
Same problems, only worse - USA Time
At the time maybe it was a good one.
Can we at least get a cool TV show out of this '70s greatest hits trip we're on, like The Six Million Dollar Man?
I remember that. Last year of HS.
A so-called conservative on Breitbart’s radio show this morning said that we have “an energy crisis in this country”.
We may have an energy price crisis, but that’s about it.
The current arrangement solves the problem. Going back to standard time from November to March, the latest sunrise where I am is 7:18. Kids in my town start school at 8:00. Going to year-round DST has them going to school in the dark.
I was in Canada at the time.
In the dead of winter it’s always dark ‘til sunrise at 9, and it stays light ‘til 4:30 or so.
DST never did save that much daylight up there.
There’s no real point. Stay on standard time, defined as where solar noon happens around 12pm.
Companies and schools are free to adjust their schedules.
We have an energy crisis because brandon is restricting the higher outputs we require.
Leave the damn clocks alone and adjust your schedules!
In fact, UTC for the whole world works for me.
I remember it and I liked it
I remember my aunt complaining that gas had hit 49.9 cents per gallon back around that time, during the last fake “energy crisis”.
I don’t remember the switch but I do remember riding my bicycle to school in the Dark in Junior High School
I remember those dark days. It’s part of the reason why I believe DST is a crime against nature.
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