Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Here's a question that comes to mind twice a year when we change our clocks.

Why, oh, why, is daylight savings a thing?

Well, it's because for roughly two decades, nobody had any clue what time it was.

You heard that right.

Daylight savings laws were first passed in 1918.

They were intended to help people save fuel and give shoppers extra time in the light.

But by the end of World War II, the system was fractured and it was ultimately dismantled.

The result, time became essentially anything governments or businesses wanted it to be.

Some places observed daylight savings time. Some didn't. People would step off airplanes with no idea how to set their watches. In office buildings,

it could be 4 p.m. on one floor and 5 p.m. on another. An important matter for several reasons,

including, of course, who punched out first to get to happy hour. Left to their own devices,

private enterprise and local governments took to changing the time as often as they changed their socks, setting off a nationwide frenzy of time tampering.

Pondered this headscratcher from Michael Downing, a historian of time.

Quote, a short trip from Steubenville, Ohio to Moundsville, West Virginia became a symbol of the

deteriorating situation. A bus ride down this 35-mile stretch of highway took less than an hour,

but along that route, the local time changed seven times. Finally, the government got involved.

A committee was established.

It was called the Committee for Time Uniformity.

Congressional hearings were held.

Legislation was proposed.

Editorials were written.

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