Albert Einstein showed he understood time better than anyone when he came up with his revolutionary theory of relativity, postulating that a clock riding on a fast train would tick more slowly than one sitting still. But the brilliant physicist never took on the truly daunting task: telling time in Indiana.
That’s hard because Hoosiers have never been able to agree on that subject, or even to keep their disagreements consistent. Some Indiana residents can get to work by 9 even if they don’t leave home until 9:30–except for the times when they have to leave by 8:30. And the disparity has nothing to do with rush-hour traffic.
You see, most of Indiana is in the Eastern time zone–but, unlike 47 other states, it doesn’t observe daylight-saving time. Ten counties bordering Illinois fall in the Central time zone–but do observe daylight-saving time. So you need to change your watch when you go from South Bend to LaPorte during some months, but not others.
If that’s not confusing enough, five counties on the Ohio-Kentucky border are on Eastern time but spring ahead and fall back each year. Anyone traveling through the state and trying to keep appointments is strongly advised to wear two watches, if not three.
Some Hoosiers like being contrary. The thinking, says political scientist Bill Blomquist of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, is that “if everyone else is doing something and it looks stupid to you, you shouldn’t do it even though everyone else does it.”
Being out of step, though, creates complications that some Indianans could do without. Gov. Mitch Daniels has been pushing for daylight-saving time for the whole state, but the legislature has been riven with disagreements. On Monday, the House narrowly approved the change, but there’s no assurance it will get the Senate to go along.
One proposed compromise was to let counties adjacent to the Central time zone refuse to make the annual time switch–along with any counties adjacent to any that opt out. That would replace confusion with chaos.
But then the federal government announced that all counties in a time zone are legally required to do the same thing, whether it’s accepting or declining the extra sunlight.
If Hoosiers are weary of this debate, though, they might gain some insight from Einstein. When asked to explain relativity, he said, “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.”
There’s no way to know how long it will take Indianans to resolve their debate over time, but it already seems like forever.
