The Times They Are a-Changin’
This past Sunday was a dreaded day, by many. Others, like me, never give it much thought. It was the day of the time change from Daylight Saving Time (DST) back to Standard Time. Each year, there is a groundswell of support to either abolish DST or establish it year-round. It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that I’m in favor of neither. I prefer keeping things the way they are. Change is Bad!
I don’t mind it being dark by the time I get home from work. I would much prefer that to the sun coming after 8:00 am in December. It would still be getting dark at 5:30 (at least, in Nashville) but I don’t want it to still be dark after I get to work. Plus, school kids trying to catch the bus would be wandering around neighborhoods in the dark. Keep it the way things are.
One of the worst things about the semi-annual time change is the incessant whining on social media. Not only do they complain about the late afternoon darkness, but many insist that they are in physical peril in the week following each time change. Do these people not travel? How do they handle a flight from Indianapolis to LA? If they are in such physical peril for a week following a one-hour time change, how on earth can they manage to get off of the plane under their own power? I imagine they probably die a two or two after their arrival.
But that’s just a little side-rant to this post. Less than twenty years ago, the state legislature of Indiana made a choice that affected all of us. For decades, Indiana observed Eastern Standard Time – all year long. When neighboring states moved their clocks ahead one hour each spring, the clocks in Indiana were left alone. If a national TV show came on at 8:00 pm in February, by April the same show would come on at 7:00 pm. The nighttime news that normally aired at 11:00 pm in the winter, became the 10:00 news in the spring and summer.
While that may have been confusing to Indiana residents, it was very easy for those of us living in the Central Time Zone that travelled to Indiana through the Month of May. We never had to re-set our clocks and watches. The time was the same in Nashville as it was in May in Indiana. In 2006, the legislature voted for Indiana to observe Daylight Saving Time. The Month of May has not been the same since.
Selfishly, I enjoyed being able to make plans without having to plan around a time change. If the first practice for the Indy GP starts at 9:30, it’s conceivable we could leaver at 5:00 am for the four and a half hour driver from Nashville to Indianapolis. Add in the extra hour for the time change? I’m not leaving at 4:00 am. Even die-hards have to draw the line.
While we have been inconvenienced with having to deal with a time change each way, every time we go back and forth to Indianapolis since 2006, the real casualty of Indiana choosing to observe Daylight Saving Time, is the loss of Happy Hour in the Month of May. Before 2006, the Month of May in Indiana was an hour behind what it is now – meaning that there were afternoon shadows from the grandstands along the main straightaway around 5:00 pm. The entire width of the straightaway was covered with shadows from 5:00 until 6:00. Shadows meant cooler track temperatures, which translated into faster speeds.
Not only was each day of practice affected, but so was qualifying. That’s why in the old days, cars would pull out of line shortly after Noon or 12:30. The track was getting hot and slippery, so teams and drivers opted to wait until Happy Hour to make their qualifying run. That’s what made Pole Day so dramatic. The track would be open for seven hours, but the fastest runs were generally in the final half-hour of the day.
I suppose it doesn’t matter now, with all of the runs for the pole taking place within the last hour of the day – on a sunny race track. But back in the day, Happy Hour was always the highlight of every practice day and qualification day.
I listened to Trackside earlier this week and heard Kevin Lee bemoaning the early darkness that comes with this time of year. Personally, I don’t mind it. It reminds me of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Shortly after the New Year, it will be noticeably brighter after 5:00 pm (at least in Nashville). I don’t mind dealing with either side Daylight Saving Time, and I don’t mind crossing time zones when I travel. But when the time change affects the Month of May at Indianapolis – that’s a totally different matter.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
November 8, 2024 at 8:38 am
George, as a man born, raised, and has living in Indiana for nearly 50 years, you’re preaching in my wheelhouse this morning.
Believe it or not, most of us actually liked when we didn’t change our clocks. For my first 31 years, living in Indiana just meant you were on “Chicago” time half the year, and what we called in Northern Indiana, “Michigan” time half the year. If anything, when then-Governor Mitch Daniels pushed to move us to Daylight Savings Time in 2006, the mistake he made was forcing us to be on Eastern Daylight time instead of Central Daylight time like you are in Nashville. In my town of South Bend, for example, we live an hour and 20 minutes East of Chicago, but we’re not in the same zone as Chicago, we’re on the same zone as New York. Makes zero sense. What’s even crazier, the three counties between South Bend and Chicago have for at least the past 50 years ignored Indiana time zone laws and aligned themselves with Chicago, springing forward and falling back their clocks on Central Daylight Time. So 20 minutes east of my house, the next county (LaPorte County) is always an hour behind me, despite being in the same state.
Welcome to Indiana! A very strange place to live.
November 8, 2024 at 10:53 am
Most people forget that Daylight Savings Time was expanded by 6 weeks in 2007- three weeks added at the beginning as well as the end. I think if we reverted back to a shorter DST most people wouldn’t complain about it. Of course, under this circumstance, it would still effect The Month of May.
November 8, 2024 at 10:57 am
DST might be a bummer for Happy Hour at The Speedway in May, but it kneecapped the Indiana dirt tracks. It caused every track in the state to run their programs during an extra hour of sunlight which killed the surface of these tracks. Hard, slick, and dusty became more and more the norm.
November 8, 2024 at 1:22 pm
each state can make their own decision about having DST. however, they cannot have MORE or LESS. it is a Federal take-it-or-leave-it deal. maybe there is window of opportunity next year in Congress.