Daylight Savings Time falls back

Friday, Oct. 24, 1997 | 10:13 a.m.

Clock shop clerks and school maintenance workers are among those who will be busy this weekend turning back the hands of time.

Officials recommend that clocks be changed at 2 a.m. Sunday (remember it's "spring ahead, fall back"). But, many people change their clocks and watches before going to bed Saturday night.

The end of daylight savings time in the autumn means folks gain back the hour they lost last spring -- for many, an extra 60 minutes to sleep in Sunday morning. Some people will need that additional rest after spending Saturday adjusting countless clock knobs.

"It gets just a hair busier around here," said Donna, a sales clerk at Ted's Clock Emporium, 280 S. Decatur Blvd. "We have about 500-600 models, and it takes two of us about 2 1/2 hours to change them all."

She notes that some models are more difficult to change than others, especially those with count wheels that do not permit the hands to be turned backward.

"The easiest way to change those type of clocks is to stop the pendulum and restart it later -- if they have a pendulum," Donna said, declining to give her last name. "Otherwise, you turn them ahead 11 hours.

"Clocks with silent modes are easier to change because they can turn either way."

In addition to her workload on the job, Donna has a collection of about 40 clocks at home that will have to be turned back.

While Donna and other shop clerks around the valley are busy changing clocks and watches, five Clark County School District employees have been assigned to make the rounds at the 80 schools that have manually set clocks.

Rich Brewer, equipment repair coordinator for the school district, said about 120 schools have clocks that are programmed to be automatically adjusted for the fall and spring time changes. The rest have to be changed by hand.

Starting after classes today, school maintenance workers will manually reset the master clocks that control all of the other clocks at a particular school, Brewer said.

That work will continue through the weekend until all of the clocks are reset in time for Monday's first bell, he said.

Folks with non-electric clocks also should get in the habit of performing other maintenance tasks in the spring and fall.

"We also remind customers to change their batteries when they change the time," Donna said. "In some cases, you have taken a clock down from the wall, so it is a good idea to put in fresh batteries at that time to keep it running well."

Although some of the clocks sold at Ted's Clock Emporium appear to be quite old, they are in fact reproductions of those that would be antiques today.

"People remember having these type of clocks when they were younger and want to recapture that moment," Donna said, noting that the shop has about 25-30 grandfather clocks, as well as many wall models, including cuckoo clocks.