By Don Rush
Special to the Clarkston News

Thank you, Benjamin Franklin.
Your tongue-in-cheek ideas have led Americans, Michiganians and locals to grouse about Daylight Savings Time (DST) two times a year, 238 years after you first brought it up.
Daylight Savings Time for the year ended Nov. 6.
In 2008, Steve P. Calandrillo and Dustin E. Buehler, published “Time Well Spent: An Economic Analysis of Daylight Saving Time Legislation.” In their paper they wrote, “Like many great ideas, daylight saving time started as satirical fodder.”
On April 26, 1784, the “Journal de Paris” published a whimsical letter titled “An Economical Project,” signed by a “Subscriber” later unmasked as Benjamin Franklin.
According to their account, Franklin – who at the time was in France – “accidentally” woke up early one morning. “… And he was surprised to find his room ‘filled with light’ because his servant had neglected to close the shutters the night before. Franklin wrote to the Journal, ‘[y]our readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon … will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises.’ From his observations, Franklin concluded that shifting sleeping patterns to coincide with sunlight would save money on candles. He calculated the amount he would save on candles by waking up (and going to bed) six hours earlier, and then multiplied these savings by the estimated number of families in Paris. Franklin’s tedious calculations indicated that Paris residents would save more than ninety-six million livres tournois each year simply by equivalent adjusting their schedules to rise with the sun -a sum to approximately $200 million today.”
Again, thanks, Ben.
In 1966, the United States Congress voted to enact the Uniform Time Act which meant all states were to observe DST. However, in 1967, Michigan voters voted to reject DST and to stay on Standard Time. That lasted to 1972, when again Michigan voters went to their polling stations and voted to go back to DST starting in 1973. Michiganians have observed this twice a year since.
On social media, we asked locals to chime in their opinions on DST.
Here’s a sampling of what you wrote:
“Complete waste of time, literally and figuratively. The sun is going to rise and set when it does regardless of what time anyone puts on a clock. If you want to get up or go to sleep an hour later or earlier, just do it.” – Cory Johnston
“Just switch it 30 minutes…and call it a done deal!!!” – Susan Iverson Risko
“Just keep it the same year around! The older you get, the harder it is to adjust! I don’t think it saves any $$$!!” – Sheila Goins Hughes
“I’ve read several articles that state switching to Daylight Savings Time (spring forward) confuses the circadian rhythms in most people with adverse effects on the heart. I say we just stay on Standard Time.” – Stephen Strawsburg
“Good golly, who can honestly say that they enjoy darkness at 5 p.m.?  How does anyone not appreciate a 9 p.m. sunset in the summer?  C’mon folks, DST is in place for eight glorious months. The only thing better is to keep DST all year long!!!” – Kevin Rosneck
“Only man will cut off a blanket and re-sew it to the top and THINK it is longer.” – Danni Drake-Irwin

PHOTO: Last month, locals gained an hour of sleep. Photo: Matt Mackinder