BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Take a drive along the Ohio River in Indiana during summer months,
and you could end up switching the time on your car's clock four times.
"You can go in one store and it will be 1 o'clock," said Travis Chrisman, president of Drue Chrisman Inc., a Lawrenceburg trucking firm. " A little down the road you can go in another and it will be noon."
While most of the Hoosier State remain on Eastern Standard Time, some counties near Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago and Evansville, Ind., switch to daylight time to align their clocks with out-of-state neighbors.
Though the changes can get a little confusing, most residents are used to it, Mr. Chrisman said.
Daylight Savings Time was first suggested in an essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. Several countries, including Britain and the United States, adopted the practice during World War I and World War II to conserve energy by reducing demand for artificial light. But the practice was haphazard across the country, confusing those making train schedules or planning television broadcasts. In 1966, Congress approved the Uniform Time Act that established a uniform Daylight Savings Time across the country.
Indiana is one of three states (the others are Arizona and Hawaii) that opted out. While time in Indiana remains the same, neighboring states alter their clocks. In the summer, most of Indiana is an hour behind Cincinnati, in the winter, they are the same.
To add to the confusion, several counties choose to ignore the rest of Indiana when it comes to time. Five counties near Chicago and five counties around Evansville are exempt from state law that Indiana follow EST and instead set their clocks to CST, as their Illinois neighbors do. They take part in Daylight Savings Time. And Dearborn and Ohio counties opt to set their clocks the same as Cincinnatians, as residents in three counties do with Louisville. And like their Ohio neighbors, they also switch clocks this weekend.
"They are bootlegging Daylight Savings Time," said Indiana state Rep. Bill Bailey, D-Seymour.
According to him, state law says they should be synchronized with the majority of Indiana, but convenience and tradition win out. And "it's not like the state would send in the attorney general because a few people have their clocks off," he added.
People in Dearborn County watch Cincinnati television stations and work in Cincinnati businesses, so it is only natural that they would set their clocks like the rest of metropolitan Cincinnati, said state Rep. Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg.
Residents have been doing it for years, said Dan Kuebler, principal of Central Elementary School in Lawrenceburg. The school sent home newsletters with students to remind parents to move their clock back an hour this weekend.
Come Monday, there will likely be a few students who show up early.
Mr. Chrisman's company makes deliveries all over the country and has a simple way of dealing with the different time. If you have to be in Evansville at 8 p.m., that is Evansville time. If you have to be in Cincinnati, make it Cincinnati time. And several of his fellow southeastern Indiana residents suggested: When making arrangements, ask "What time is it there?"
