Don't let them turn it BACKWARDS... FORWARDS... or UpSiDe DoWn

[spatch]

I forgot to send this one over the tubes last weekend but altoidsaddict brings us this lovely piece of American ephemera: A drive-in intermission message denouncing Daylight Saving Time. I especially like the "Follow the sun" bit, which almost veers into Polyphonic Spree territory for a moment there.

At first this may seem like a real non-sequitur. I mean, who would have it in for DST so bad they'd make an announcement (albeit one with a catchy tune) like this? Indiana residents? Well, okay, but the answer is much more simple when you think about it: Drive-In operators themselves.

Daylight Saving Time pushes the clocks forward during the spring and summer months, so the sun goes down later. Seeing as how you can't watch a drive-in movie until the sun's fully set, the drive-ins -- still firmly attached to the belief that they provide quality family entertainment, not just for a place for hormonal teenagers without GPS units to try for a ground-rule double -- must start their movies later. Kids have to be in bed early and teenagers have curfews and all that rot, so it's easy to see how drive-ins would consider DST a severe blow to their income. Besides, a double feature ending at 10:00 feels a lot earlier than one ending at 11:00.

Don't you agree?

Then WRITE YOUR NEWSPAPER EDITOR
...AND YOUR GOVERNOR

Comments

[skatiemom.livejournal.com]

I can completely understand why a drive-in operator would be irritated by DST. Western Michigan doesn't get dark until around 9:30 p.m. during the height of summer. My local drive-in (taken out by a windstorm back in 1988) would start the first feature at 9 as we were all arriving, play the second at 11-ish, and rerun the first at 1-ish so that we could actually see it.

I talked my parents into a 3 a.m. curfew the summer I was 16 based on "but I want to see the WHOLE first movie!" Unfortunately, all my friends had to be home by 2 a.m. at the latest and I never truly enjoyed my freedom. *sigh*