DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME & WARTIME VICTORY GARDENS

By Olivene Godfrey

I dread each year when we "spring forward" the first Sunday in April to start Daylight Savings Time. I stay sleepy until we "fall back" on the weekend of October 29-30.

According to an Internet article, Congress passed the first DST in 1918 and repealed it the next year. I remember when President Franklin D Roosevelt imposed year-round DST for three years during World War II. In 1966, Congress approved a uniform DST standard for the whole country. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon had the nation go to DST for 15 consecutive months in order to conserve energy. The last president to modify DST was Ronald Reagan who advanced DST's starting date to the first Sunday in April.

VICTORY GARDENS: Victory gardens or war gardens or food gardens were vegetable, herb or fruit gardens planted during World War 11 at private residences to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. These gardens produced up to 40 percent of all the vegetable produced that was consumed in the nation.

According to Internet research, if home front urbanites and suburbanites could produce their own potatoes and carrots, mass produced potatoes and carrots could be in larger supply, purchased more cheaply by the War Department saving pennies for bombers and tanks, and sent overseas to feed the troops.

Victory gardens, which I remember, were planted in backyards and every available space. In 1946, when the war was over, many residents didn't plant Victory gardens, causing food shortages worse than had been experienced during the war.

But, since that time many Americans still plant vegetable gardens for their own families and friends and enjoy the fresh homegrown foods.