From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
So Eastern Daylight Savings Time has ended for this year and we’re back on Eastern Standard Time. Too bad!
Still, I continue to hope that the New England states, with the possible exception of Connecticut, whose southwestern corner is tightly connected with New York City, will eventually adopt year-round Daylight Savings Time – or call it Atlantic Standard Time, which is used in Canada’s Maritime Provinces.
This will lengthen the light in the afternoon and address how far east New England really is. It would raise the spirits and productivity of most people.
Yes, many public and private school schedules now force many students (and their parents!) to get up when it’s still dark during Eastern Standard Time. But many studies have shown that students, and particularly teens, would do better with a later school opening time anyway. This would, of course, conflict with early hours at many businesses. Perhaps some employers could make things more flexible for parents – for instance letting them start work later and end later.
So now we enter what many, including me, find the dreariest month – sullen, gray and brown and getting darker and darker throughout – with only a good Nor’easter lending it some pizazz as it blows through the now open woods. But November can also have a sere, spare and quiet beauty.
