I Was Thinking... Time & Time Again

At the beginning of November when we changed the time, I was surprised by the number of devices we own that tell time. My wife and I discussed this as we were driving. In our vehicle, there were two watches, two cell phones, and the clock in the car. It became pretty apparent that we are obsessed with time.
In our kitchen there is a clock on the stove, on the microwave, on the radio and on the wall. The dining room has an anniversary clock and a wall clock. Our living room has a grandfather clock and a mantle clock on the piano in addition to the time that shows up on the TV.
There is a small clock in the bathroom, one in the spare bedroom and three in our bedroom. That doesn’t count the cell phone that is always on my wife’s nightstand. In the basement there is one in my workshop and another one in the office and one over the fireplace that doesn’t work anymore. This, for two people who are retired and don’t HAVE TO be anyplace we don’t want to be.
So why are Americans so consumed with time? It seems to be a cultural thing. Many cities have had clock towers and while Kasson doesn’t, we do have sirens that sound at noon and 5:30 p.m.. Yes, 5:30 p.m. No one can really tell me why it is at 5:30 p.m. but the most common response is, “well, it’s always been at 5:30.”
In our society almost everything is tied to a time schedule. What time are church services, when do the stores open or close, and schools have all kinds of schedules based on time. We get doctor, dentist, and hair appointments for a specific time.
Most of us knew what time we had to be at work and what time we could leave. Time gets worked into our vocabulary as well. There is starting time, break time, quitting time, overtime, and even down time. Even many of our recreational activities are time sensitive.
Football, soccer, basketball, hockey and wrestling all occur within time constraints. Even baseball now calculates the time between pitches. Track revolves around keeping track of times. Sports are also one of the few places you can get a “time out.” All these sports employ someone as a timekeeper to control our activities. It seems time is incorporated in all aspects of our lives.
We try to have some family time at dinner time before it is bedtime. We may have a short time to get things done or reflect on things a long time ago. You are also told to make sure you get things done in a timely manner. But the most important time is being “on time.”
Being on time is generally considered a desirable trait. However, not everyone agrees on what “on time” means. Some feel it is important to be fashionably late so everyone sees you arrive. My mother’s idea of being on time for church was to leave the house no later than a half hour before services, and we only lived three miles from town. But after being an usher at church on various occasions, some parishioners’ idea of being on time is getting there before the first hymn is finished. Our Lions club has a concept called “Lions Time.” Under this system, if you are 10 minutes early, you are really 15 minutes late.
But no matter how you view time, we know we never seem to have enough time to complete everything we want to do. It is also true we can never get wasted time back and also have no idea of how much time we have left.
Did You Ever Wonder? — Why is it said that an alarm clock is going off, when it is really coming on?
Did You Ever Wonder? — Why is it said that an alarm clock is going off when really, it’s coming on?