No, Mark Joseph Stern, I do know what I'm railing against when I complain about Daylight Saving Time. I'm not confused; I'm tired of the uselessness of the idea.
I lived in the Chicago area for a year. It felt like it was just south of the Arctic circle, because on the hottest day in August the public pool was too cold to do more than shiver in. I was used to Texas summers, not Chicago summers(swimming pools actually get warm in August, but still cooler than the air temperature), and the winters were worse. Daylight started stealing from the sky by 3:30; it was dark by 5 p.m. The sun barely made a dent in the darkness during the week in the morning, when my then young daughter had to go to school where they stood outside waiting for school to start unless the temperature was about 5 below (if memory serves; it may have had to go lower than that). Maybe the sun was up by then, but it was barely up. Who would wish to see it come up later? Teachers, janitors, principals, parents, even students? Apparently Mr. Stern doesn't know any such people. Apparently Mr. Stern also thinks everyone in America lives in Chicago, or further north, and would love to have DST in the winter as well as the summer. He thinks what we all dislike is the sun retreating from the sky before the workday has ended. I think about getting up at 5 by the sun, even though the clock says it's 6 a.m. I think, further, of going to bed at 10:00, when the sun is still withdrawing light from the sky. That's how it is south of the Mason-Dixon, in the summer on DST. Florida may want that year round, but I don't. One more reason not to live in Florida.
DST for me is summer days that don't end on time, but reach almost to midnight. It's the closest to Moscow's "white night" as I ever want to get and of course it's hot, rather than cold. That heat persists long after the sun sets, so making the clocks tell me it's time to sleep so I can get up the next morning, when the heat of the day has only begun to dissipate, when the light of the day has only begun to turn to darkness, is a more real problem than Mr. Stern's thought that everyone sleeps as late in winter as he does, and wants the light to last until he gets home from work. You want the state you live in in the Northeast or upper Midwest to do that? Fine; but count my state out.
I hate daylight saving time, and I know why, and I know what I'm talking about. It isn't a convenience in the summer in the American south, it's a burden. Days are long enough down here in summer. By August, day is distinguishable from night only by the presence of non-artificial light; the heat has built up so much over so many days it won't go away until October, or maybe November. About the time we "fall back," in fact; and it's nice to get up as the sun is rising, and go home as it is going down. It's nice, in other words, to be back on "God's time." Besides, I lose an hour of sleep today that I won't get back until November. I'll feel that for 8 months.
There are a lot of people, apparently unknown to Mr. Stern, who work by the sun; and those who don't work farms or ranches, who get up by clocks and toil in the daylight, know the difference between rising in the dark and going home in the heat of the day. No, Mr. Stern, we know what we are talking about. What you don't know, is what we are talking about.
These things that pass for knowledge I don't understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment