For some reason the time change always confuses me. Why?
I don’t know. Is it 6:30 or really 5:30 or maybe even 7:30? I never even change
my clocks until I am sure. (As of this writing, I have not changed my clocks so
maybe I will be on time or very early or miss the whole event?)
I had a flight home on Sunday, March 10 at 5:06 a.m. from
the Charleston Airport. First of all, who flies that early? I guess I do. So,
on Saturday night Abe and I discussed what time we should be leaving for the
airport to be there by 3 or 3:30. I like to get there early, but Abe said, “You
really don’t have to be there until 3:30 because no one will be there and maybe
the airport won’t even be open.” We checked. It would be open. Okay, well, then
I asked him, “What time do we need to leave????” We agreed on 3:00 which would
get me there by 3:30 or would it be 2:30 or 4:30? I set my alarm clock for
2:30.
At 3:00 Abe came into my room, and I was still sound
asleep. I am always packed and ready when he comes upstairs to grab my bag.
“Mom, wake up. You have a flight, and it’s 3:00.” I was completely in a fog,
and I didn’t even know what he was talking about. It was that very deep, dead
sleep. “What??” I couldn’t comprehend until I told him it can’t be because my
alarm didn’t go off.
He continued to say, “There is no 2:30 a.m. It doesn’t
exist. Your alarm can’t go off.” Okay, that was enough to wake me up. What?
“What do you mean there is no 2:30? How can there be no 2:30??” I told you the
time change really does me in.
I tell you, I never got ready so fast for a flight. I
knew I couldn’t miss it as I had our first rehearsal after spring break that
night. I made a big deal out of being back on time…including me! He came back
up to grab my suitcase and I was hoping I had everything. After we got in the
car, I couldn’t let it go. “What do you mean there is no 2:30? Where is it?
Where did it go?” He continued to tell me there was only 1:59 and 3:00, but
nothing in between. He tried to change the subject, but I couldn’t do it. Where
did 2:30 go? It just vanishes? Did everyone know this but me?
Finally, to his luck, we got to the airport which was
almost empty because it was 3:30 or something like that. The young woman at the
counter was yawning as I stepped up with my bag. I had to ask. I mean, now it
was a burning question. “Did you know that there is no 2:30 on the spring time
change?” She nodded. She knew. I didn’t know. She laughed and said that so many
passengers miss that early flight because of the confusion.
I got to my gate with a dozen other folks with that same
hollow look in their eyes. I took a poll. Half knew and half did not. I felt a
little better knowing I wasn’t the only one. As we were chatting about the fact
that 2:30 does not exist, one of our pilots walked by with a large coffee in
each hand. That was totally reassuring. When we were all on the aircraft, he
made a joke which helped. He was awake enough to make a joke. Then as we
starting to taxi down the runway, we had to stop as a herd of deer (seriously?)
made their headquarters on the runway. That was a new one for me. It took close
to a half hour to get them all off the runway and back into the woods. Finally,
we left Charleston.
I am still a bit confused, but luckily, I won’t have to
worry about it for another year. In the meantime, I thought of Carl Sandburg’s
poem, “Arithmetic.”
“If you have two animal
crackers, one good and one bad, and you eat one
and a striped zebra with streaks all over him eats the other,
how many animal crackers will you have if somebody offers you
five six seven and you say No no no and you say Nay nay nay
and you say Nix nix nix?”
Carl Sandburg
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