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March 13, 2010

Time change sparks fun memories of days gone by

By Bob Belcher Corsicana Daily Sun The Corsicana Daily Sun Sat Mar 13, 2010, 08:45 PM CST

Corsicana — As you’re reading this on a Sunday morning, I hope you remembered to “spring forward” last night ...

“Daylight Saving Time” officially began at 2 a.m. this morning, and remains in effect until Nov. 7, when we’ll “fall back” to Standard time. Fortunately, with so many “smart” electronic devices in our lives today, technology makes a lot of those changes for us. However, my old Mr. Coffee isn’t one of them, so it got the “spring forward” command last night the old fashioned way — with me trying to remember how to set the clock without messing up the desired “brew time.”

Many years ago, living on the tri-state border of California, Arizona and Nevada (Needles, Calif. to be exact), dealing with the annual forward and back scenarios required more than just setting the clocks. It required a lot of thought and planning to stay straight.

There was at the time, and I’m sure continues today, an awful lot of “trade” taking place between the city of Needles and the Mohave Valley area of Arizona, right across the Colorado River.

Arizona, however, was in the Mountain Time Zone, while California and Nevada were in the Pacific Time Zone, an hour “earlier” than Arizona. During the winter months, if you planned a trip into Arizona, or those in Arizona coming to Needles for something, the hour’s time difference was important to keep in mind for appointments and such.

But, the summer months found all three states on the same “clock” when California and Nevada “sprang forward” and Arizona didn’t. As I used to say on the radio back then “We’re synchronized for the summer months.” No more need to worry about “whose time” you are referring to in going to a movie or meeting for dinner. Life was simple, unless you were trying to watch TV.

TV? Yes, TV.

This was in the 1970s, long before the days of cable and satellite television.

Needles received its television service from stations in Phoenix and Las Vegas via a “translator” system. Some antennas high on a mountain range in Arizona picked up the signals from those two towns and retransmitted them into the “Colorado River Valley” where we lived. We had six or seven channels as I recall, and thought we were in “fat city” in the world of entertainment, being in that we were in the middle of the desert 100 miles from the nearest television station, in a big hole that prevented most TV signals from reaching us.

During the summer months, when all three states were on the same “clock,” program times were the same, with “prime time” starting at 7 (much like it is here) and the “late night” shows (Carson, in those days) starting at 10:30 p.m.

However, during the “Standard time” months of the fall and winter, when Arizona was actually an hour ahead, our TV habits in California had to change. The 5 O’Clock News — in Arizona — came on at 4 p.m. for Needlesites; the 6 O’Clock News was at 5, etc., etc.

But the really neat part was “late night” shows like Carson’s Tonight Show — six months out of the year, folks in Needles got to watch the show at 9:30 p.m.! For a Carson fan like me, who also had to get up at 4:30 in the morning everyday to go to work at the radio station — that was cool!

All that sounds quite silly, looking at it in terms of today’s world of 500 satellite channels, video on demand, pay per view, DVR and Tivo and Hulu.com, all of which allow you to watch pretty much any thing you want to, any time you want to. Technology, while making our lives easier, has also spoiled us rotten.

Thanks for allowing a little trip down memory lane as you ponder the question my lovely bride of 33-plus years still asks me each spring and fall after the “springing forward” and “falling back”...

“But what time is it really?”

—————

Bob Belcher is Managing Editor of the Daily Sun. His column appears on Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at belcher@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this column? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com

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Time change sparks fun memories of days gone by

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