Adventures in Daylight Savings Time

In keeping with it's unofficial motto of being the most ornery of Great Lakes States (sorry, Wisconsin, but it's true!), Indiana had for decades rejected the notion of daylight savings time. Really, it might have been one of the few things that unified the state, since everyone seemed to oppose it. In our current age of partisan politics, this kind of unity is rare.

As a result of Indiana observing "Indiana Time" all year long, or perhaps in spite of it, people from Indiana are inordinately obsessive about time. My parents, when traveling, will always refer to "Indiana Time" as some kind of benchmark against which they measure current time. For example, when they took two weeks to drive out West this summer, they refused to change either their car clock or their wristwatches. I suspect if my parents ever were to visit more far-flung places - London? Mumbai? Tokyo? - they'd still keep "Indiana Time."

I guess it's easy to understand why the issue of selecting the "right" time could be tough in a state like Indiana. It's a Northish Northern state, which impacts the amount of winter daylight available. It's either at the Western border of the Eastern Time Zone, or at the Eastern border of the Central Time Zone, which means that sunrises and sunsets fall at less-than-optimal times for that time zone.

For a while it was on Central Time, but that was changed many years ago to Eastern Standard Time. My grandmother insists that ever since the transition to Eastern Standard Time (all year, all the time) Indiana has been on "Daylight Time." And, perhaps this is true.

Then, "My Man Mitch" was elected governator of this fair state. My understanding of the following political debates are filtered through my parents and through a few mean-spirited Newsweek articles, but as far as I can gather, it goes something like this:
- Mitch was a Republican.**
**I'm not sure exactly why this matters, except for the fact that Indiana has had one much-loved Democratic governator in Evan Bayh and two tolerated Democratic governators over the past 15 years, so perhaps all of this going-around-and-messing-up-stuff can be blamed on the Republicans. I should also note that Indiana is a terribly Republican state in general.
- Mitch, a Republican, wanted Daylight Savings Time so very, very badly, that he brought the bill up in every General Assembly session.
- After being bludgeoned by Mitch's demands for Daylight Savings Time, the General Assembly acquiesced.
- The General Assembly passed a measure for Daylight Savings Time, but did not specify which time Indiana would observe, as the political debate surrounding this question prohibited the passage of the bill.
- The State of Indiana may or may not have asked Congress to decide.
- It was decided that Indiana would observe Eastern Standard Time and Eastern Daylight Time.

What's the result? As far as I can tell, it's twofold:

First, the sun sets at like 10:30 p.m. Seriously.** It's insane, and crazy, and if I were a kid trying to catch fireflies, I'd be heartbroken.
** Actually, today it will set at 9:13 p.m.

This is Kevin, outside my house yesterday, at 9 p.m.

Second, the people of Indiana are in a passive-aggressive outrage. At least my family is. My mother blames Daylight Savings time for everything. My sister has proclaimed is obsolescence, and said that it vanish from every state in the next decade. My grandmother insists that we're on "Daylight Daylight Time," as if we're in some proto-Seussian society.

I suspect some of this outrage will be tempered by the sweet, sweet falling back that will occur in October. Until then...I just don't know. I hope they make it. I doubt they will.