Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Time change - not a fan

While reading my blog buddy Jack's post this evening, he mentioned the time change. It reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in years. I worked in an AT&T data center with hundreds of computers that did everything from keeping tabs on phone bills, salaries, and yellow pages sales, to tracking how much gas the fleet burned daily.

In those days, the computers didn't change the time programmatically as the do now. Each computer had to be shut down so that the time could be adjusted manually. These computers ran constantly. Commerce never sleeps. The only time they were down was if a part failed or the time changed.

Often when we shut them down to adjust the time, they wouldn't come back up. Time change weekends were brutal. For those working inside those frosty walls (computer data centers are COLD), time change weekends were not fun.

Slow rewind to the lives led by our grandparents. They probably didn't fret about time changes. They went to bed when it got dark and they got up when it got light. I never once heard them complain.

The picture below is of Mamie and Johnny – Jilda's grandparents on her dad's side of the family. I'm not sure he ever owned a watch, though I can't verify that. They also never drove a car or ever owned one.

When it came time for groceries, they walked a couple miles down the road to the local country store and bought what they needed and walked back home.

Sometimes they walked the five miles to Sumiton, which was the nearest "Big City." Sumiton had a post office, pool hall, and a po-lice. They also had a dry goods store and a drug store.

When I look at the picture below, I don't get a sense that they were unhappy people. Time for them was buzzing mosquitoes and swooping bats in the evenings, and a rooster alarm clock. 

What about you? Do you like this time change or do you get your panties in a wad like me?



16 comments:

  1. I definitely belong to the wadded panties group. Time is arbitrary and time change weekend (in either direction) reminds me of that.

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  2. The change doesn't bother me as much since I retired, but it is a bit stupid in my opinion. Interesting about the computers, those early days of computing held lots of issues that were not thought of until it was often too late.

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  3. I find the time change interesting but unnecessary since we're no longer an agrarian society.

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    Replies
    1. "Contrary to popular belief, American farmers did not lobby for daylight saving to have more time to work in the fields; in fact, the agriculture industry was deeply opposed to the time switch..."
      - from: http://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-daylight-saving-time

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    2. Anonymous2:40 PM

      It was to save electricity for the war effort!!

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  4. I must wish they would leave ot one way or the other. I like waking up with the sun going to bed in the dark and longer days. Whatever time zone that might be.
    Lisa

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    Replies
    1. Gosh! Sorry for the typos. I didn't have my glasses on.

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  5. I don't like the time change. It seems like a useless exercise.

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  6. I'm all for leaving it alone. I like lighter evenings because I work inside all day with no windows so this time change is where I wish it would stay.

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  7. I'm not for the time change at all. Why change the setting that God set. You're supposed to get up with the daylight and go to bed when it gets dark. That's only natural unless you're a nocturnal animal.
    Hugs,
    Julia

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  8. There is something about Old Pictures that make me smile. Life will NEVER be simple again, but we try to live simply. I have known folks like Mamie and Johnny. But I will never know any more like that. Sherry mom and dad never owned a car but they lived on the mill hill. They also walked to town, church and shopping.
    Nice memories. /THANKS (Thanks for the shout-out also.)

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  9. I'm in your camp on this, Rick. And I remember those awful weekends in the data center. I was there alone maintaining 66 of those computers when the whole "state of Alabama" (AT&T computers) shut down and stayed down for hours during a generator test. When people dialed "0" for operator, the operators were staring at a blank screen! Turned out the problem was a failed relay.

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  10. Time change sucks! I hate it!! OK that must have been so frustrating to have to turn the old computers off and then trying to reboot them. Amazing how things have changed so much in just these few years (even if it is 30 or 40 years). I love the picture of her grandparents. I am taken with his face as he looks like someone who liked a joke, could tease the kids with the warmest heart and abided by what his wife said. She probably knew how to run the household:) Look at me trying to say something about people I know nothing about but the picture just struck me. We can learn from this time since passed

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  11. The older I get, the less I like the time change... the only good this is that this year I work from home so it is a bit easier... I feel for everyone though xox

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  12. Since we in Arizona don't observe DST, I probably should recuse myself. Then again (lol), I wanted to say how I enjoyed your vignette of Jilda's grands. Some months back, my mind became preoccupied with my own grandparents, wondering how on earth they never became bored. For sure, none of these folks were unintelligent; I suppose they simply paid attention to that which was important.

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  13. I couldn't care less any more about time changes - we have one coming up either this weekend or the next.
    I was struck by the family resemblance between Jilda and her paternal grandmother. Can you see it?
    Better than being struck by a truck as I cross the road - or more pertinently by yet another Google/computer problem, today's special being the inability to view comments before they are published.

    Alphie

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