TIME AFTER TIME: IT TAKES TIME TO SPRING BIG CLOCKS FORWARD

It takes time to get the world rolling again once daylight-saving time begins. Sometimes it takes the police.

Just in case the uptake is a little slow this morning understandable since those who didn't sleep in lost an hour of inertia daylight-saving time began at 2 a.m. today.

Though this flip-flop between daylight-saving and standard time occurs twice a year like clockwork, somehow it always takes a while for things to seem right again.

Perhaps we resist the government requiring us to pretend the hour is later than it really is. Maybe our circadian rhythms are mamboing.

Fortunately for those who must reset the thousands of clocks in the city, nobody appears to be in much of a rush to lose that hour. Be assured, no one was out resetting the town's clocks at 2 a.m.

That it'll occur sometime this morning or afternoon is more probable. First-thing Monday is even likely.

In most cases, more is required than just pushing a button.

Especially for Scott McDowell, who tends the clock in the bell tower at the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson. McDowell requires a police escort. That's because the clock only can be reached through a judge's chambers.

"It's kind of embarrassing," he says.

Once there, the procedure is uncomplicated. When he turns one hand of the four-faced clock, the others follow. Sort of.

McDowell, who apprenticed under the clock's previous tender, the late Robert Daugherty, says, "It's a loose clock."

Meaning the minute hand slows down when it goes up and gains speed coming down the clock face. McDowell must correct the clock, made by the Howard Co. in 1921, every month or so.

Somehow, immediately registering that saved hour doesn't seem like a high priority. "I don't think it bothers Jackson too much," McDowell said.

The face of the Downtown Clock in Cape Girardeau might not be up-to-the-minute right away either.

"I've had some criticism when it wasn't done as fast as some people wanted it," concedes Charles Hutson, president of the Downtown Cape Redevelopment Corp.

Hutson can't pass the buck, since he resets the Downtown Clock at the intersection of Main and Themis streets himself. "I'm the official clock-changer," he said.

In most cases, spring is the clock-changers' busiest time of the year. The fall change usually just requires turning the clocks off.

The Downtown Clock's accelerator requires 45 minutes to catch up an hour.

At Hanover Lutheran Church, the job takes only five or ten minutes, but synchronizing the clock, the carillon and the chimes can be tricky, says church trustee Jim Kinder.

The chimes ring on the hour, and the carillon plays at noon and 6 p.m. during the warm months.

At St. Mary's Cathedral, Msgr. Richard Rolwing says the 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. ringing of the bells is more than just background noise to the neighborhood.

"There's a lady across the street who is a school teacher, and she was late for class one day because our bells were on the blink," Rolwing said. "She always listens for the 6 o'clock bell."

The clock only has a forward movement, so falling back on the last Sunday of October simply requires turning the clock off for an hour.

At Cape Central High School, maintenance workers will be busy early Monday morning manually resetting up to 75 clocks located throughout the school.

The school was built with a system that automatically reset all the clocks in the building. "But that wore out 10-12 years ago," said Barry Pender, director of maintenance for the Cape Girardeau Public Schools.

The junior high has such a system, but Pender says, "Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

In City Hall, a maintenance worker resets the wall clocks in the offices. But a secretary said each person is responsible for resetting their own desk clock.

The carillon at Southeast Missouri State University ordinarily plays at 8:05 a.m., 12:05 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. It was turned off Friday and remained silent Saturday, but was expected to be back on schedule today.

"If it's off for very long people will start calling," said Terry Major, interim building and grounds superintendent for the university.

He described the pristine process of resetting the clock: "You go up and get hold of the hand and turn it around until you get to 5 o'clock."

On the day daylight-saving time arrives, only one thing can be counted on: Everyone has an excuse for being late.