Standard time becomes a problem

So we’re back on standard time. That fact was impressed on me on Monday, when Pat went out to renew her driver’s license one day ahead of her birthday.

Because hers is a CDL, she also needed to take a physical. So she went to Yakima. After the physical, she found the driver licensing office in Yakima was closed.

It was about 2 p.m., and Pat became frantic. She called me to ask for help. I found the phone number of the Sunnyside office and called her back.

Meanwhile, she stopped in Toppenish to gas up (lowest prices in state). She was still panicking. She would not be able to do her job the next day without her CDL.

Shortly, Pat called back with cool calmness. The Sunnyside office was open, and she was heading there.

A half hour later, at about 3:30, she called again in a frantic state. She was also irate.

“These stupid people now want my birth certificate,” she yelled.

Thankfully, Pat organizes important papers well. I found her (Ohio) birth certificate and headed to Sunnyside.

Pat called again as I was leaving the house and urged me to hurry. I asked her to calm down, that it was only 3:30.

“Oh, I forgot we’re back on standard time!” she responded and then laughed.

I don’t remember the actual date Washington adopted daylight savings time, but I remember the discussion leading up to it. Most farmers and farm workers were not in favor.

DST didn’t make any difference to them. Crops would still grow on standard time, the cows would still need to be milked on standard time and the rooster would still crow on standard time.

DST was touted as a way to save energy. We’d have more daylight in the late part of the day. Therefore less energy use.

That still doesn’t make sense to me. We also cut some daylight out of the mornings. That should have caused more energy use early in the day.

No, daylight savings time was not about saving energy. It was all about golf. I learned that after I started to play.

It takes about four hours to play an 18-hole round. With standard time I couldn’t start at 5 p.m. and complete a round. With DST I could, especially if I played what became known as ready golf.

So next time you have a complaint about daylight savings time, blame the golfers. They wanted an extra hour to complete a round, but they didn’t want to work from seven to four. Eight to five sounded a lot better.