Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night!

I’ve noticed the days are getting shorter and shorter—starting about a month ago. The past few nights it has been dark by 6:30 or so.
I hate the long months of days when I get up in the dark and come home from work in the dark—it’s so depressing. Especially the getting up in the dark—I hate getting up in the morning to begin with. Having to crawl out of bed when it’s still dark out just totally sucks. Sorry, but it does.

I mean, I’m a theater person—I’m used to spending lots of time in the dark. It’s what we do. [But we also spend a lot of time in the light—albeit artificial….]

I'm sorry, but I just hate that whole “Fall back, Spring forward” time switch thing. I don’t get it. What is the point? It’s just a pain in the ass to twice a year have to adjust the microwave, the VCR, the alarm clock, wall clocks—and the clock in my car. Sheesh. Thank god the computer and my cell phone do it on their own.

I really wondered why this whole mishegoss got started—sooooo, Google here I come....

First interesting fact: It was Philly’s own Ben Franklin who came up with the concept. Oh, Ben…. He got his inspiration while in Paris. [That is so not what I’d be thinking about if I was in Paris, but I digress.] Apparently, Franklin had befriended some people who had invented a new kind of oil lamp; they were so enamored of his concept that they continued corresponding with Franklin even after he returned to America. [Ah, the first oil lobbyists!!]

Second goodie: the official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, NOT Daylight SavingS Time. Oops, we all get that one wrong. Our bad.

Next little tidbit: In the U.S., 2:00 a.m. was originally chosen as the changeover time because it was practical and minimized disruption. [And the bars love that extra hour of revenue in the Fall.]

And this one: at one time in the 60s, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul made the switch on different dates and things got really confusing…..

[Follow the link from the title of this post to learn more interesting factoids—like the guy who used DST to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War.]

Now the rationale for this entire thing started in the springtime: the main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" in several parts of the world) is to make better use of daylight. We flip the clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. [Okay, I'll play along...] Then, in the 70s, it became a whole energy saving thing. [Remember the energy crisis of the 70s-- $.89 a gallon seems like nirvana now, doesn't it?] Maybe it’s just me, but I'm pretty sure I use more electricity in the winter cause I have to turn lights on in the morning and at night. [Of course, with the whole menopause thing, the AC is on even in the middle of a blizzard, so I lose big time there.]…. I’m confused. But, like the rest of you, I will run around my apartment changing all the clocks on November 1st.....

Okay, looking at this and yesterday’s post, I’m coming across as really crabby. Maybe I have Seasonal Affective Disorder?

We are such stuff as dreams are made on

[this is gonna be a long one—bear with me….]

As the grandkid gets ready to leave for college next week [whoa—tons of mixed emotions there], I’ve found myself thinking about my youth. I am a Baby Boomer—in fact I’m pretty much right in the middle of the boom. We were a generation of dreamers. Some of those dreams came true and some got crushed in the dust of the reality of the time…. My 16th summer has come back to mind mostly. News coverage of several 40th anniversaries has brought it all back. I was “on the cusp” of a lot of things that summer: adulthood, responsibility, discovery, sexuality… It seems as if the country was on the cusp too; but of very disparate things. A lot would change at the end of the volatile decade, and that summer was indicative of that.

It was the summer of man’s first landing and walk on the moon. Not only US citizens, but the world was glued to the television coverage of this unbelievable accomplishment. For a brief moment we were all unified in our awe of what human beings are capable of achieving. I vividly remember watching with friends during my 16th birthday party, all of us dumbstruck by this new technology. Today’s teens take computers, cell phones and the like for granted. All of which came about, in part, because of space exploration.

It was also the summer of the Stonewall riots—the start of today’s gay rights movement. Some very brave individuals decided enough was enough; they were not going to be brutalized, marginalized and hide in the closet anymore. Can you imagine the courage that took at that time?! But we would not come as far as we have were it not for them—and others who carried on the fight in those early years. We still have a long way to go, but it now seems possible….

It was the summer of the Manson murders too. Charlie and his tribe were gonna bring about “Healter Skelter” [their spelling, not the Beatles’], a massive race war. On the night of August 8th, Manson sent several “family” members to a home on Cielo Drive in L.A. to enact revenge and set his bizarre plan in motion. Actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child and 4 others were brutally murdered. The next night it was Leno LaBianca and his wife. The entire nation shared L.A.’s fear.

This coming weekend will mark the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition—3 Days of Peace and Music.” Poor Max Yasgur had no idea what was about to occur on his dairy farm in sleepy Bethel, NY! Around 186,000 tickets were sold beforehand and organizers anticipated approximately 200,000 festival-goers would turn up. In the end, estimates were that nearly half of a million hippies showed up for what became a free concert. I was deemed too young to go, but my future husband was there. He was 22 and fresh out of photography school (we would not meet til 3 years later); however, he had no pictures of any of the 3 days he spent in the rain and sun listening to some of the most amazing artists in rock music history. He was too busy “grooving.” I teased him about that—a lot. But Woodstock came to symbolize a lot for my generation—a generation still deeply scarred by the war in Vietnam, which was at its height that year. Peace and love really meant something to us. Deep down it still does.

When you look at all of these events, it’s pretty daunting. So much happened during my teen years that contributed a lot to who I am today—the good, the bad and the ugly. We were a generation of idealistic dreamers—and that’s a good thing. It is our dreams that make us human, I think.

Peace.