This morning, we all switched our clocks back to Standard Time, a concept that came to be used during the 19th century to regulate weather observations and train schedules. Prior to that, each town had someone who would note the precise instant that the sun reached its zenith, and that became noon. However, as the world turned under the sun, the concept of astronomical time led to some interesting variations as the sum moved across the landscape. Noon in Norfolk, VA is decidedly not noon in San Francisco.
It took telegraphs and railroads t start setting what we know as Standard Time. Railroads run on schedules, and if every little whistle-stop has a different time standard, that is no way to run a railroad.
Here in th Deep South, we synchronized our clocks by the mill whistle. Alexandria had a whistle that would blow at noon and 5:00 p,m. Natchitoches had one that would blow at 5:oo, Jena had one that would blow at 5:00. If you didn't want to wait until 5:00 to set your watch, many banks had time services you could call. In Alexandria, our bank had such a service, and the number was 442-4411. It is amazing that I can remember that after all these years.
Nowadays, our computers and mobile devices synch themselves from the central server, so wondering what time it is, your device can tell you, accurate to the thousandth of a second. But, what I've noticed since I retired, is that I go to bed about three hours past sunset, get up about an hour before sunrise, and eat in the middle of the day when I get hungry. I still wear a wrist watch, but I really don't care what time it is.