Living in the Northeast, I haven’t had much opportunity to observe how people handle changes in timezone during day to day activity. Say you are living on the cusp of the Eastern and Central time zones. You live in the Eastern time zone but work is only a few miles away in the Central time zone. Do you have to write down the requisite time zone and do the math each time you need to know when your next appointment is? Are you constantly changing your watch? And when Daylight Savings Time kicks in, like it is tonight, do you get really confused? And while we’re on the subject, why do some time zone lines follow the state boundaries and others cut through them, sometimes even for only a few miles? This has always bothered me and I figured it was about time I asked. Thanks!
Good question, I’m glad you asked. We do some insourcing in our office and I have to speak to people in Europe once in a while. I screwed up a phone call last week because I didn’t realize that they went off DST a week before we did. I was used to a time delay of 5 hours, but last week it was only 4 hours. So I’ll go back to saying about four times before any appointment: so that will be 10 AM Boston time, 3 PM London time.
So I’m guessing that you frequently have to double-check which time zone you are referring to.
Confused ? Maybe, do you live in Australia ?
In Arizona, we don’t change time. Except for some of the Native American places. So, yes, I do get totaly time shock when I check my phone and then look at the clocks. It bites.
For some reason I initially read your thread title as “What’s it like to drive along the edge of a time zone?” and was imagining a situation in which a driver gets to his destination an hour before (or after) his passenger.
I’m of two mind about this.
I have found it best to live near the western edge of a time zone (I currently live near the western edge of the Eastern time zone). More daylight to enjoy, more fun times.
If he does then he really is confused. We went on to Daylight Saving Time a week ago.
We stayed in a hotel on a road trip once that was right on the edge of Central/Eastern time. So the clock in the room was on Central time, but the closest cell tower was on Eastern time, so that’s what our phones were picking up. We checked out of the hotel, got in the car, and instantly lost an hour of the day. It was very demoralizing!
It’s a pain in the butt and cool too. As noted, Arizona doesn’t change so I spend part of the year unsure what time it is when I call someone. Tribal businesses we always check before going, because they could be on either time, no matter the state.
Then there’s Mexico nearby and most areas change time about a week earlier.
The good thing is that late night shows come on before my ‘bedtime’, depending upon where the station is located.
Hubster’s last duty station before retiring was Ft Knox, Kentucky.
If you’ll check your map, you’ll see that area is right on the edge of Central and Eastern Time.
Fortunately we lived in the same time zone where I worked, but the newspaper people had to be extremely agile at juggling times.
Not only did people deal with Central and Eastern Time, but many of the small farming communities did not observe Daylight Savings Time. This was especially noteworthy when an oldtimer passed away, and his or her obituary would be written in the paper. Church services and graveside ceremonies would be at a given hour, with CDT, CST, EDT or EST prominently displayed.
~VOW
I live in SE Tennessee which is on Eastern time. I fly out of Nashville usually, which is on Central time. Occasionally the temporal mechanics of figuring out which shuttle to book to get me there in time (but not too ridiculously early) gets me in a muddle - I’m not good with that sort of thing and I have to actually look at a clock face to sort it out 
It is kind of handy though in one other aspect of my life. I take my horse to a trainer’s place in Florence, Alabama for lessons. It’s a 3 1/2 to 4 hr drive, and sometimes life is such that I have to a down n’ back in one day. But because they are an hour behind us I can leave my place at 5 am, be there around 8 am their time, and ride early in the day before things heat up (summer concern, obviously). Going home kinda sucks, because of the ‘lost’ hour, but I’m not trying to be on time for an appointment then so it’s not so bad.
Eh, if I want to get some Indiana Everclear hopping the Ohio State Line I set my watch an hour ahead… or is it back?
Shit, there’s a whole wiki art about Time in Indiana. The most temporally punished state in the land.
Until recently I lived in AL (CST) and worked in GA (EST). Work was fairly easy to figure out once I got onto a schedule, but trying to get business done in AL in the morning before work was anywhere from a PITA to an impossibility. Doctors appointments were nightmares (both the spouse and I had doctors in both AL and GA) of ‘okay, what time do we have to leave and which time zone is it?’ I kept the house clocks on EST, ignored my phone clock, and just did math in my head a lot.
I live in Georgia, just over the Chattahoochee River from Alabama. Phenix City, Alabama uses Georgia time. Our cabin on Lake Harding in Alabama is on Alabama time. Half the clocks are set on Georgia time and half are on Alabama time. It’s a pain in the butt; when I’ve been there for a few days I have no idea what time it is.
This attitude drives me crazy. THERE IS EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT OF DAYLIGHT AS THE POINT 300 MILES EAST OR WEST OF YOU. pant, pant.
But then, I think Daylight Savings is a conspiracy by the math-challenged.
I think the day after the time changes we all experience what it’s like to live on a time-zone border.
I use iGoogle as my start page and I have a world clock app on it that is set for the cities I care about. Now Hawaii is 5 hours behind and Tokyo is 14 ahead or me. Vista also has a feature that set additional cities that show up when you hover on the time in the lower right corner.
Two of the clocks in my house has wmmv, so the only clocks I have to set are the stove and my car.
He said more daylight to enjoy. Less in the morning, when you’re still trying to sleep.
I agree. I am on the eastern edge of a time zone and I don’t like it! I had not considered the impact it would have when I moved here. I like to sleep in as late as possible on days when I have to work, so it’s a bummer for me that the sun rises so early (before I’m ready to enjoy it). It was nicer when I lived on the western edge of the time zone and could enjoy more daylight time after work.