Spring Forward, Fall Back

“Spring forward, fall back” is a ritual of Daylight Saving Time. The mnemonic “Spring forward, Fall back” was cited in The Spectator on May 2, 1931, and “Spring forward! Fall backward!” was cited in a letter to the New York (NY) Sun on October 2, 1931. “Spring forward, Fall back” was cited in the New York (NY) Herald Tribune in 1934 and 1947. The adage began to be used frequently in the 1950s.
 
New York City-born Charles T. Stone (1915-1993), an advertising executive, was claimed in his 1993 obituary to have coined “Spring Forward, Fall Back,” but this has not been verified in print with a contemporary citation; also, it is unlikely that he said it by 1931. New York (NY) Herald Tribune columnist Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960) was given credit for “Spring, Fall back” in 1940s newspapers, but his 1934 column—not the first citation—was submitted by Alfred Payson Terhune (probably dog breeder and journalist Albert Payson Terhune).
     
“If it weren’t for Spring Forward and Fall Back, I’d never get any exercise at all” is a popular joke.
 
[This entry was assisted by research from the Quote Investigator and Christopher Philippo.]
   
 
Wikipedia: Daylight saving time
Daylight saving time (DST) or summer time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that light extends into the evening hours—sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, users of DST adjust clocks forward one hour near the start of spring and adjust them backward in the autumn to “normal” or regular time.
 
New Zealander George Vernon Hudson proposed the modern idea of daylight saving in 1895. Germany and Austria-Hungary organized the first implementation, starting on 30 April 1916. Many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s.
(...)
The North American mnemonic “spring forward, fall back” (also “spring ahead ...”, “spring up ...”, and “... fall behind”) helps people remember which direction to shift clocks.
   
California Energy Commission
Daylight Saving Time: Its History and Why We Use It
by Bob Aldrich, Webmaster (retired)
Spring forward…Fall back….

It’s ingrained in our consciousness almost as much as the A-B-Cs or our spelling reminder of “i before e….” And it’s a regular event, though perhaps a bit less regular than the swallows coming back to Capistrano.
 
Yet in those four words is a whole collection of trivia, facts and common sense about Daylight Saving Time.
 
2 May 1931, The Spectator, “Report of Competition No. 1, pg. 714, col. 2:
Leonard Inkster’s charming quatrain was the best of the few that remembered the honour due to “Saint Willett.” Sheila gave all that was needed in four words:
 
“Spring forward,
Fall back.”
 
This is a really clever “tabloid reminder,” but it is not a four-line jingle; Janet B. Macdonald uses the same idea:
 
“O hands off clocks
And watches all,
In Spring, spring on,
Fall back at Fall.”
 
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
2 October 1931, New York (NY) Sun, “What Do You Think?,” pg. 35, col. 1:
THE TIME TANGLE.
Even a Daylight Saving Fan Can’t Get It Straight.
To the What Do You Think Editor—Sir: We have set the clock back. Last year at this time I set it forward, the year before I let some one else set it.  In the spring of 1931 I set it back. In other words, for the past several years I always set it the wrong way first and usually was about two hours off before noon of the next day. I am a daylight savings fan, but leave it to me to get it all tangled up!
 
This year, about June, I decided that I should get some rule in my own mind to know whether it should go forward in the spring or fall, and maybe some other reader who may have had the same trouble might get the matter straightened out, so I send my simple rule.
 
Most clocks have the letters S and F, which stand for “slow” and “fast.” Instead of slow and fast I think they should stand for spring and fall, and as usually we spring forward and fall backward, hence in the spring the clock goes forward and in the fall it goes backward.
 
People who, like me, get the directions muddled, can recall the rule for daylight saving as “Spring forward!” “Fall backward!”
L. H. C.
 
6 September 1934, New York (NY) Herald Tribune, “The Conning Tower” by F. P. A. (Franklin Pierce Adams), pg. 17:
“This will come up again the last Sunday in September, and I hereby dedicate my poem to Addison Sims, of Seattle:
 
Spring forward,
Fall back.”
(Written by Alfred Payson Terhune.—ed.)
 
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
27 April 1940, Nassau Daily Review-Star (Nassau County, NY), “Hour’s Sleep You’ll Lose Nothing To Worry About,” pg. 1, col. 3:
Householders who have already begun to worry about that clock business, wondering as they do each year, what to do with the timepiece before urning in Saturday night, are reminded of the formula prepounded by Franklin P. Adams, the well-known columnist:
 
“Spring forward, fall back.”
 
Old Fulton NY Post Cards
26 April 1941, Nassau Daily Review-Star (Nassau County, NY), pg. 1, cols. 3-4:
You Lose One Hour Tonight;
Just Put Clock Ahead at 2
 
It’s All Very Simple If You Follow F. P. A. Formula: ‘Spring Forward, Fall Back’
(...)
It’s all very simple, if you follow the formula propounded by Franklin P. Adams, widely-known columnist and “Information Please” program expert,
 
“Spring forward, fall back,” he says.
 
14 April 1947, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), “A Bird’s-Eye View,” pg. 5, col. 2:
And of course you forgot the clock-changing couplet—Spring forward, Fall back.
 
27 April 1947, New York (NY) Herald Tribune, “Opinion of the Week, pg. A7, col. 6:
Daylight-Saving Reminder
To the New York Herald Tribune:
Remember you always SPRING forward and FALL back.
 
Do the same with your clocks, Sunday night.
CHESTER CARTER.
New York, April 24, 1947.
 
25 September 1953, San Luis Obispo (CA) Telegram-Tribune, “Cease Saving Daylight” (poem), pg. 8, col. 1:
And don’t forget, neighbors, Ye Editor’s crack,
In four witty words: “Spring, Forward; Fall, Back!”
—A. C. Phillips
 
24 April 1954, New Castle (PA) News, “Pa News Observes,” pg. 1, col. 1:
As a final reminder, Pa News suggests that clocks in local homes be turned ahead before retiring tonight rather than wait until morning. One member of the family should be assigned the task in order to avoid confusion. A good motto to remember is this. “Spring forward; Fall backward” or in other words, in the spring the clocks go forward and in the fall they go back.
   
18 June 1956, St. Louis Daily Livestock Reporter (East St. Louis, IL), “For Juniors,” pg. 4, col. 4:
January’s Method
Back on the first of May when most of the cities go on Daylight Savings Times, the Professor was in a quandary, as he is regularly at least twice year.
 
“Dear me!” he exclaimed. “I never can remember whether you turn the clock up the spring and back in the fall, or the other way ‘round.”
 
“Well,” offered January Jones, “it used to be I couldn’t either, until I devised a sure-fire method and now I’m never in doubt.”
 
“Well, please tell me, begged the Professor.
 
“Simple,” said January. “You SPRING FORWARD and FALL BACKWARD, so in the spring you turn the clock forward, and in the fall backward, see?”
 
The Professor smiled and went away mumbling. “Spring forward, fall backward. H-m-m.”
 
25 September 1956, Valley News (Van Nuys, CA), pg. 1:
The old adage “spring ahead—fall back” is recommended to guide confused citizens.
 
22 April 1957, The San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, CA), pg. 22:
Just remember: “In the spring my clock springs forward; in the fall it falls back.” Simple? (Let’s see—that IS the way isn’t it?)
 
27 April 1957, Redlands (CA) Daily Facts, “It’s Easy. “In the SPRING My Clock SPRINGS Forward” (editorial), pg. 12, col. 1:
All of this is not really necessary. There is a simple little way of remembering how to set that clock. This is it. (We suggest you have the jeweler engrave it on the back of your watch.)
 
“In the SPRING, my clock SPRINGS forward.
“In the FALL, it FALLS back.”
 
Simple?
 
(Let’s see—that IS the way, isn’t it?)
   
12 October 1957, Burlington (NC) Daily Times-News, “Walter Winchell of New York,” pg. 4:
New Yorkers and other easterners who enjoy Daylight Savings Time until October’s end are recommended to the Los Angeles Examiner’s clever and simple four-word memo to put the clock ahead or back…“Spring forward, Fall back.”
   
27 April 1958, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Cityside with Gene Sherman,” pg. A1:
TWICE A YEAR, as a public service, we revive the ultimate in mnemonics for those who simply can’t get it through their pointed little heads which way to adjust their clocks for Daylight Saving Times. And today’s the day. The shift of an hour occurs in spring and autumn. And all you have to do is form a mental image of an athletic alarm clock that “springs” ahead and “falls” back and set your watch accordingly.
 
SunSentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
C. Stone, Coined Daylight-saving Time Slogan
November 14, 1993|By MARY C. WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Charles P. Stone (Charles T. Stone is correct—ed.), a former New York advertising executive who coined the “Spring forward, fall back” slogan for the national daylight-saving time campaign many years ago, died of cancer on Friday at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. He was 78.
 
A native of Manhattan, Mr. Stone served as chairman of the Schiffman, Ferguson and Stone advertising agency in New York until retiring in 1978. He and his family moved to Fort Lauderdale that same year.
(...)
But it was during his early years in advertising, which followed his years at MCA, that Mr. Stone apparently came up with the catchy phrase that still reminds millions of forgetful Americans about the time changes that occur twice each year, she said.
 
Charlotte Stone said she didn’t know exactly when he penned the phrase. But she said he and his friends often talked about how he had come up with it for a campaign.
 
“This goes way back,” she said. “It was sometime before we were married, but he used to always tell that story.”