I always thought Daylight Savings Time was put in place to allow more time for hunting rabbits.

That’s because as a young man, hunting rabbits was like playing computer games today.

The difference was that you’d get to use a real gun (with real bullets) and you didn’t have to worry about being scolded by a sheriff’s deputy for carrying a loaded weapon.

The extra hour also provided the extra time to get in my 62 Ford to head for the dirt roads south of town, where rabbits were plentiful and deputies were scarce.

Fried rabbit, as it turns out, is an excellent tasty treat when served up with fries and white gravy.

It’s still popular today in some states where country cooking is practiced more frequently.

We even had a designated place where we’d hang the rabbits before being skinned.

From there, the rabbits went to the kitchen where they were disjointed, battered and fried. I can’t remember the last time I had fried rabbit, but I would welcome it on my table today.

Times have changed. In the 21st Century, hunting the right thing rabbits and carrying a loaded weapon will surely get you in trouble.

But the biggest deterrent is that it’s just too much work and takes too much time when you can head to the local convenience store for an order of hot wings or cheesy pizza in a matter of minutes.

Getting back to Daylight Saving Time, the explanation is that the time change cuts on the usage of incandescent lighting and saves energy.

While I don’t believe the time change makes much of a difference in our power consumption, I’ll admit it’s nice to have and extra hour to fire up the barbecue pit.

That seems to be the best argument for keeping Daylight Savings Time: more time to work on the yard, play golf or to head to the beach.

It makes perfect sense to move the clocks forward because it gives working people more daylight when they’re off work.

This year, we’ll move our clocks one hour forward (spring forward) at 2 p.m. on March 14, the second Sunday of the month. That’s today.

On the first Sunday of November, we’ll set the clocks back (fall back) one hour, completing the cycle.

There’s also been a lot of argument as to whether Daylight Saving Time makes much of a difference where energy consumption is concerned.

But the biggest argument seems to come from people who would prefer not to tinker with their clocks and from those who complain Daylight Savings Time dictates when they go to sleep, when they wake up, and when they go to work.

Then there’s the notion from those who don’t like the idea of having to conform to their governments wishes.

As one writer put it, “Once a government ‘reform’ is imposed, we adjust to it regardless of its wisdom.”

I couldn’t complete this column without a little history. In the United States, Daylight Savings Time was instituted in 1966.

Today’s version lasts about twice as long as Standard Time and is still motivated by the need to save energy.

In 2005, the Energy Security Act decreed yet another modification that extended Daylight Savings Time by another month to save energy and to reduce Greenhouse gases.

Whatever your opinion, we’ll change our clocks once more this Sunday. We adjust to our seasons, so why not to our time.