Early on in my blogging career, I made my bones writing extensively about Daylight Saving Time. I haven’t done that for awhile. And, truth be told, I’m not going to do much now. But, I figured I didn’t want to let the time change pass without mention. Where I live, the time changed back to Eastern Standard Time, and I’m happy about it.
As we live through DST, I guess I have some mild annoyance about changing the clocks; but that’s not really a big deal. Philosophically, I can point to the fact that Central Time should begin somewhere around Mansfield, Ohio and, therefore, shouldn’t be starting so far west as Terre Haute. But, for me personally, the part that actually affects my life in a negative way is the morning darkness in September and October. (The late daylight was more of a problem for me in June and July when my kids were younger).
My proposal — and this is something for the feds, not the state — would be for DST to end on the equinoxes. Daylight time from March 21 to September 21; Standard time from September 22 to March 20.
We’re on the opposite sides of the reaction to darkness. I’m pretty happy that Indiana is in the western edge of the time zone. The worst thing for me would be to be in the eastern edge. I spent a lot of time in Chicago in winters, and it was positively depressing to have the sun set at 4pm. I couldn’t live there for that alone.
I guess I don’t have a full appreciation for the difference just going 60 miles east or west makes on this issue, but clearly folks in Western Michigan (lower peninsula only, I think) have essentially lived with this situation for some time, and because they are further north the darkness in the wintertime is more pronounced than here. Folks in (admittedly more Eastern) Kentucky somewhat likewise.
If human beings hibernated we wouldn’t have the winter problem. But then again, if bears had to change their clocks (and check their smoke alarm batteries) twice a year, somebody would try to amend Indiana’s Constitution to declare them “persons”. I say leave what God has presently ordained for Indiana via its legislature, lest She punish us with an earthquake like She’s doing with Oklahoma.
I would have no problem with your proposal. Like Mike Kole, I am very happy to be in the Eastern Time Zone and on DST, but I thought the extension of DST a few years ago was pretty pointless.
See, now I’m the exact opposite. I think it is unnatural to watch the news at 11PM, and having the sun go down at 10PM in the summer is crazy.
And don’t exaggerate, the sun goes down at 4:30 PM in Chicago on December 21st.
Central time kicks the crap out of Eastern Time.
I was depressed on Sunday, though, I thought I would get to see the sun on the way to work, but it was still dark at 5:45 AM. And then it was dark on the drive home, too.
Doug, I like your proposal (I also hate waking up in the middle of the night during late September and October), but it looks like Halloween is standing in our way:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/an-extra-hour-of-daylight-thank-the-candy-lobby/
When I think of Indiana’s continuous battle regarding daylight savings time, I always think of one of my favorite songs :
“Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?
If so, I can’t imagine why…”
Solution to both Indiana being in the wrong time zone & the stupidity of DST: Eliminate CST & PST, put the country on two time zones. Indiana would be on EST year-round:
http://www.standardtime.com/proposal.html
Someone, shoot holes in this plan. I can’t find any.
Hell, just eliminate time zones entirely and put everyone on Coordinated Universal Time. We’re all linked up world-wide; we should probably just share one standard time for ease in synchronizing our activities.
Observations on time run the gambit: a) With EST/DST we are two hours ahead of when I was a kid; b) The extension of DST further into Fall meant thousands of kids waiting in the dark for a school bus and for this old man to be walking his grandkids to school in the dark–guess schools should have offset the change by simply starting school an hour later, then would have been interesting to observe reaction by the powers that be that decided this was all a good idea.
Someone, shoot holes in this plan. I can’t find any.
Uhhh… eastern time SUCKS! That’s the hole!
The history of daylight saving time is pretty interesting.
I thought the way that Indiana used to do it was charming.
No argument from me, Buzzcut & Doug. To me, we all either go Central time (God’s time) or UTC & call it done. My wristwatch already runs on UTC. After all, once we decide that the sun’s position in the sky has eff-all to do with time, then we should be on one time zone.
However, it appears there is one group of people that want to be on Central time with DST (Eastern most of the year), then another that just LOVE playing golf at 9:30pm, and yet another that just want us back on Eastern year-round.
My point, though, was *as a compromise*, why wouldn’t people pick up on the proposal they have outlined at standardtime.com?
I belive one of the arguments for extending DST into November was the “candy lobby” as candy companies lobbied congress to have the lighter evenings during Halloween and increase candy sales since the thinking is more people would participate in Halloween if it was lighter during the evening hours…….
wl3048, it had nothing to do with the candy companies making more money, at all! I know they lobbied for that out of an abundance of concern for children walking around in the dark.
They simply forgot that most local communities setup the hours that Halloween goes on, and that this law forces kids to walk to school in the dark instead.
Jason,
You sure about that?? I’d say it had more than nothing to do with it…
Mr. Downing says that the candy lobby also played a significant role in pushing Halloween into daylight saving time, believing that extra hour of trick-or-treating in daylight would spur more candy sales but arguing that it would decrease deaths.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/an-extra-hour-of-daylight-thank-the-candy-lobby/?hp
Trick or treating is held very early in a lot of communities now, so the argument for extending DST to make trick or treating safer is dubious at best–just like the other arguments in favor of DST. We should just go back to the way things were Daniels and Company forced through this nonsense and pretend that the last few years were part of an awkward ret-con produced by hack writers.
wl3048, Pila, my sarcasm font was broken. :)
@Jason: duly noted. :)