Turning The Clock Back
You don’t do that anymore. Nor do you turn it forward.
Back in the seventies, when going to the movies was still a thing, and L.A. shows were at eight sharp and after ten, I went with my girlfriend for a pizza at La Barbera’s. It was torn down and been replaced by an apartment building, but in the days of yore it was considered the best pie in Los Angeles, not that it was that good, this was before L.A. captured the culinary zeitgeist, before Nancy Silverton put her spin on pizza at Mozza, when you could get something round but it was mostly bread, a far cry from what I grew up with in Connecticut, where the crust is thick and crisp, the underpinning thin and there’s an oil slick on top of the tomato sauce. For the best iteration, with even a thinner skin, go to Pepe’s.
And we’re munching along, having a good time, and when we get up to leave the place is empty and dark, how could this be at five of nine?
Turns out we missed Daylight Saving Time. It was actually five of ten, and there was no way we could make that movie.
Now back in the dark ages, half the year was Daylight Savings and half the year was not. One yearned for that weekend in April when we turned the clocks forward, for that extra hour of sunlight. As for the fall… No one ever went to school in the dark, although that did happen during the oil crisis, when going to Daylight Saving Time in the winter was supposed to save energy. That’s one thing they can never get straight, whether Daylight Saving Time saves energy, they’re still debating its merits. As for me, I LOVE IT! I’m scared by sunrise, it’s so creepy, because usually I see it from the other side, having stayed up all night. I love a good sunset, but unless I’m in a foreign land and the sunrise is a thing, I avoid it.
Then again, it takes a few days to adjust, I was stunned today when I looked at the clock on my Mac and saw it was 6:30 and it was still light out, but that brings me to my point… MY MAC CHANGES TIME AUTOMATICALLY!
Changing the clocks…is that still a thing?
My computers change automatically. My Echos change automatically. The cable box changes automatically. My iPhone changes automatically. Hell, I was reading my Kindle late Saturday night and wireless was turned off and IT changed automatically, HOW DID IT KNOW?
But the big clock in the hall is stuck at five after seven, you know, the one that speaks to that signal in Colorado, this has happened before, it’ll probably start working in a day or two, but now I can’t rely on it when I normally do, imagine if all the clocks that synch to signals didn’t!
I had to change the hour in my car. Do you still have to do that in a Tesla, which famously downloads updates overnight? I drive a 2005, and I’m not trading it in just so I can get the new tech, it’s got satellite radio and a turbocharged engine and that’s enough for me, unless I win the lottery I’m still gonna drive it, especially in the land of valet parking. No one wants to break into my car, if it gets damaged I’ll live, well, not really, but the concept of a car evidencing your status… As for drivability, I’ve got that covered, mine’s a four wheel drive sports car, I don’t need any more, although it is damn noisy.
But the clock in the kitchen, I had to update that. But it’s from the eighties.
And my answering machine… I had to reset that too. AN ANSWERING MACHINE? EVER HEAR OF VOICE MAIL? Of course I’ve heard of voice mail, but I don’t use it, you see I screen all my calls via said answering machine, and the truth is almost all the calls are robotic, most of the time they hang up upon receiving the message.
As for the junk calls on my iPhone, for some reason they’re always from Gardena and I block the number each time. Hell, I haven’t gotten one in weeks… Which means, of course, I’ll get one imminently.
But I’m thinking about it and I’m thinking if you’re a young ‘un, who probably doesn’t even own a wristwatch, you don’t even have to think about Daylight Saving Time, other than the loss of an hour, all your gadgets adjust for you, your computer, your mobile, your Apple Watch… It won’t be long before turning the clock back will be a phrase that generations just don’t understand. Kinda like a skip in a record, then again vinyl is coming back, or a phone booth. You take these concepts for granted, and then there’s a technological breakthrough and they evaporate. Of course there’s a transition period, but how long will those clocks of yore continue to function?
