Granite Geek: N.H. has argued about Daylight Saving for more than 100 years. Here we are again

Monday’s grumbling by everybody you know about the hassle of switching to Daylight Saving Time is a reminder that this clock-switching practice has been around more than a century and that we’ve argued about it the whole time.

Especially in New Hampshire, where, for a while, some communities followed it and some communities didn’t.

The time-keeping switcheroo was created during World War I to better align the hours of winter daylight with standard work shifts and thus save energy from artificial light. The U.S. dropped Daylight Saving Time in 1919 after the war ended, and the debate promptly began.

As I learned from “Seize the Daylight” by David Prerau, a book about the history of time change, Massachusetts became the first state to re-adopt Daylight Saving Time in 1920 after the feds killed it. The Boston & Maine Railroad supported the move — a big deal, since railroads basically invented time zones to make their scheduling easier — but New Hampshire wasn’t happy.

The state legislature refused to follow suit and adopt Daylight Saving Time, which produced cross-border confusion. As the book says: “Both Nashua and Manchester officially kept standard time to avoid a $500 state fine, but many businesses advanced work time one hour to keep in step with Boston.” 

Since most of our businesses, and therefore our government, wanted to take cues from our southern neighbor, we eventually fell in line, and Daylight Saving Time was codified nationwide in 1966.

In the early years, the debate involved farmers, who wanted morning light, and city folk, who wanted light when they got out of work. Farmers have been replaced by parents who want early light when taking kids to school, but the debate is basically the same these days. Since the energy savings today aren’t much to speak of, it boils down to morning people vs. night people, and there’s no obvious solution.

Everybody does agree, however, that the change itself is a pain in the neck. It’s even bad for us: The day after the start of Daylight Saving is one of the most dangerous on American highways due to fatigued drivers, and the stress of springing forward and falling back takes a toll on our health.

That’s the main driver behind the get-rid-of-daylight-saving movement, which is loud in New Hampshire. The legislature has seen several proposed bills on the topic over the years, some of which have passed either in the House or Senate before dying. Many suggest we should join the Atlantic time zone, shifting our clocks one hour earlier, and drop the time change.

However, all bills have been dependent on Massachusetts doing it first. Which they won’t because Boston wants to stay in sync with New York City. Which means the debate is unlikely to end.

However, it might get some new permutations. When writing this column, I came across a Reddit post with a novel suggestion: “They should change Daylight Saving to noon on Friday so we get off work an hour early.”

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