Story Behind The Song

An excerpt from a new audio book titled UNSUSPECTING FRIENDS, narrated by author Michael Drew Shaw. Inspired by Shel Silverstein's THE GIVING TREE and THE TRAVELER by Richard Adams.

Song Description

In this chapter, a Sweet Gum tree looks back on one particular night when he stayed awake until the wee small hours waiting for daylight savings time to happen

Lyrics

NARRATIVE:
I purposely stayed awake that night to watch it happen, but nothing happened. It was the first Sunday in April and at exactly 2:00 a.m. I was looking up through the troposphere and the stratosphere and the mesosphere, right through the ionosphere sixty miles up which is about as far as I can see, and nothing happened. I felt like a.... But then, it was April Fools Day. I hope nobody was watching.

Ben Franklin came up with this bright idea called Daylight Savings Time way back in 1784. Good grief that was, let me see, two hundred years ago that night, or day. A two-hundred year anniversary. That hadn't dawned on me, no pun intended. Anyway, it happened at exactly 2:00 a.m. and I couldn't see it, unless I blinked, but I don't remember blinking. One full hour, sixty minutes, thirty-six hundred seconds, gone, poof, just like that! And I have no idea where the time went.

Now I've been trying to figure this out for years and it still doesn't make sense to me. At 2:00 a.m. on the button on a designated day we lose an hour. Now if people turn their clocks back before they go to bed that's one thing, but if you're a picnic table like me just sitting out here under a bunch of atmospheric layers like I am with no clock and no watch - and a sun dial wouldn't do any good - isn't something supposed to happen at 2:00 a.m.? Doesn't it become 1:00 a.m.? And if it does shouldn't those of us with no clocks or watches or sundials or egg timers be able to see a full hour disappear? How could you miss that much time flying by? It baffles me.

Now if that isn't mind boggling enough, think about this. If you are on Eastern Standard Time, does 11:00 p.m. in California become 10:00 p.m. at 2:00 a.m. here? And that's just the half of it. It's not even Sunday in California at 2:00 a.m. here. Saturday night still has an hour to go. Now wait a minute. What happens to that hour? Eleven to midnight I mean. And what would happen in California if Daylight Savings Time started at 3:00 a.m. instead of 2:00 a.m.? Things would be happening right at midnight at the exact same time that days change to the next day and it might end up being Sunday here and Tuesday in California. I just don't get it. It's all very confusing and I am very tired, thank you very much. Goodnight.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's Thursday when I wake up yesterday.... and it's not even Monday yet!

Playlist Creator	Playlist Name	Date Added
Joe Perlaky	Spoken Word	3/27/2020