1 Happy St

As you know, Jill and I went on a little vacation to Florida earlier this week. It was a nice trip; much too short, but fun while it lasted. One of the things that stands out the most though whenever we take a trip to the East Coast is the time change. Coming from Chicago, a three-hour flight to Florida becomes four hours long on the way there and two hours long on the way home. It’s something that every traveler deals with without much thought. But does anyone know why? Is there still a reason for it?

My guess is the time changes had something to do with farmers. Once upon a time (I hate that phrase, but I’m using it here), everything had to do with farmers. They woke up early, got their plowing in, did whatever else they did, then went to bed for a few hours so they could do it all over again the next day. My guess is the time changes helped keep things on schedule for them throughout the country, making the sun in relatively the same spot from region to region based on what time it was. That’s fine, I’m sure it was important at the time. But how many farmers are there nowadays? How many people is this still helping? My guess would be a very small percentage. So I propose a compromise: we eliminate two of the time zones.

The eastern and central time zones can combine while the mountain and pacific time zones do the same, then we split this thing right down the middle of the country. Think of all the people this would benefit. People living in New York and Los Angeles would cut their time difference down from three hours to one while people making a short drive from Michigan to Illinois wouldn’t have any change at all.

Tell me this isn’t a no-brainer. Who can I call to make this happen?