Those people lucky enough to live in a province where twice each year their clocks jump an hour tend to get confused.
I am one of those people, so I devised one of those word association mind games. You mentally connect a word with an action as a way of prompting yourself to remember a name or task.
This memory maneuver keeps me straight when it comes to that semi-annual ritual, the re-setting of the clocks.
This true story happened in the 1980s when I lived in the Great North Woods. Sunrise and sunset were all that mattered – daylight for hunting, fishing, cutting wood and keeping the machinery running.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Since I couldn’t control when the sun rose or set, the position of the hands on the clock just did not matter. The chores still had to be done no matter what the clock had to say.
Although I couldn’t fathom how we create an hour of time, I nonetheless felt morally bound to abide by the law.
That’s when I decided to invent this word association thing to help me remember when to jump forward or backward by the obligatory one hour.
It was a fine fall day and I was out hunting, stealthily creeping along a trail, intent on sighting that big buck and shoot in its direction. I didn’t notice the fallen branch across my path. Clumsily, stupidly, I fell forward over the stick.
It dawned on me immediately. The season of the year was fall and I had fallen forward. So, in fall the clocks fall forward.
What could be simpler? Fall. Forward. But, which way do they jump in spring time? I decided to let that question rest for six months.
Come next spring, while walking down the same path stalking a wild turkey to shoot, I saw the darned branch and stepped over it. When I looked up, much to my surprise, big ol’ tom sat not more than 50 feet away.
Silently, slowly I lifted the shotgun. Just as I was about to squeeze the trigger, whoosh! Like an exploding propane tank, a dang grouse flushed from the bush directly in front of me, causing me to spring back in shock and fright.
The message was clear. It was spring and I had just sprung backward. So, now every spring I set the clocks backward one hour. Every fall, I set them forward one hour. Word association.
Springtime, spring back. Falltime, fall forward. Works for me. I hope it works for you too. And before you call to question my logic, please check the date of this issue. And smile.
