Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time has not been as uniform as it is today.  Growing up in the 1940s and 1950s as you rode across Delmarva each town would decide if it would be on Daylight Saving Time.  For the longest time the Eastern Shore of Virginia refused to go on Daylight Saving time.

Delmar would sometimes find it's self with one side of town on Daylight Saving Time and the other side not on Daylight savings time.  It played hell with work schedules, transportation schedules, Radio and TV schedules and school schedules.

Below is a 1947 newspaper article on who was going to be on daylight saving time or as it was refered to then "Fast" time.

Most Of Delmarva To Remain On Eastern Standard Time

Day-to-day life, with a few exceptions will continue on the Delmarva Peninsula on Eastern Standard Time during the summer months.

Notable exceptions are the towns of Seaford and Laurel where clocks will be advanced an hour beginning at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Salisbury and most Maryland towns on the Eastern Shore will not adopt daylight saving time. The Pennsylvania Railroad's Delmarva Division will alter some of its train schedules but will operate on Eastern Standard Time.

Rollie W. Hastings, passenger station agent here, announced the following changes in train schedules:

Schedule Changes

An early morning train formerly leaving Salisbury for Wilmington, Philadelphia and New York at 6:15 a.m. will now depart at 5:15 a.m.

A train in the middle of the day that used to leave here at 12:52 p.m. for Cape Charles will pull out of the station at 1:33 p.m.

A New York to Salisbury mail train that arrived here at 3:50 a.m. is now scheduled to reach here at 3:02 a.m.

A northbound passenger train, departing from Salisbury at 4:20 p.m. will continue on the same schedule.

Red Star Motor Coaches, Inc., and Greyhound buses operating out of and through the city will maintain Eastern Standard Time schedules.

Delmar Is Question

What's going to happen in Delmar this year has not been decided, officially, yet. Last year considerable confusion resulted for awhile as the Delaware side advanced clocks an hour while the Maryland side remained on a normal time schedule.

Walter A. Venables, secretary of the Maryland side's governing board, said that section of the town, where the state line runs down the middle of one of the principal streets, would not set up the clocks.

No official action pro or con has been taken by the Delaware side board, but there was reason Eastern Standard Time would be the rule on that side of town.

Seaford Adopts It

Seaford. where the big duPont nylon manufacturing plant draws many workers from surrounding Maryland and Delaware towns, will be on advanced time schedules as will the duPont plant

The proclamation of Laurel’s mayor, Dr. A. S. Williams, that town will institute daylight saving time for the summer months, effective at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Mayor Williams' proclamation this week merely served to back up previous action by a former administration.

Adoption of the new time basis has caused one Laurel church to juggle the hour of a special Sunday program so members of other churches may attend their own services then be present for the program.

Christ Methodist Church will present an A Capella Choir from Hagerstown at. noon (DST) so that members of other churches can hear the choir after leaving their own services.

Above from The Salisbury Times 24 April 1947