People Who Live Near Time Zone Borders Reveal How It Messes With The Mind

Arizona is a strange place. Nearly all of the Grand Canyon State doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time. Those who live in the land of saguaros and snow (Weird, right?) know nothing of time changes and observing the rotational changes of the Earth. Are we better off that way? Maybe, but there are those whose lives are always on shifting time zones the world over. Reddit user, u/aron925, wanted to know what it's like when they asked:

People who live directly on or near time zone borders: how does this affect your day to day life?

Wake up. Get ready. Work starts at 7.

Leave house at 7.

Get there at 6:40.

Contemplate existence and the arbitrary concept of time.

gotnomemory

Back when Indiana didn't participate in daylight savings, you could watch two episodes of the Simpsons on the Ohio Fox affiliate, then switch over to the Indiana Fox station and watch two more, different, episodes.

What a time to be alive.

Star-Waffle

Same time zone, but I grew up in between Milwaukee and Chicago TV markets, so we had our pick of news, sports, and reruns.

My dad would watch Jeopardy! out of Chicago at 3:30 after work, and then watch it with us at 4:30 out of Milwaukee. We always thought he was so smart...

tommyjohnpauljones

Used to live in Kentucky.

When doing business with others, we would simply ask "Are you on slow time, or fast time?"

AlreadyTaken001

I moved to the west edge of the Eastern time zone about 6 months ago and do a lot of traveling in the area for work.

As a consultant I make appointments with clients daily and I always have to clarify the time zone when setting the appointment time. I "translate" all of my central time appointments into eastern time before putting then in my calendar to keep myself from becoming confused.

I usually spend a full day with each of my clients, so I have to adopt the Central time for the day. I constantly have to remind myself that my watch is an hour ahead.

When you go into the central time zone from the eastern and stay, it feels like you have an extra hour in the day, which is nice. The problem is when you come back and it feels like you've been robbed of an hour.

I much prefer living on the west edge of the timezone as opposed to the east edge. Adjusting for the time change is much easier in this direction, and the sun comes up and goes down slightly later.

Hope this helps.

pipsdefnotathrowaway

A friend of mine almost missed her flight in Singapore during a 8 hour layover. Her telephone didn't switch to the local time.

And that's why people, never trust your automatic timezone. Turn it off. It also saves your battery.

A---Ukelele

My wife has a one hour commute across the time zone border to work everyday. The downside is it takes her two hours to get to work. The upside is it takes her zero hours to get home.

Also, flying is a massive pita because the nearest major airport is two hours across the time zone border, so by the time you account for the time change and the drive and the extra time for TSA, you have to leave for the airport like four or five hours before your flight departure.

Illini88228

I used to teach 6th grade geography and I'd pull up a flight schedule for Cleveland to Chicago and ask why it took 10 mins to fly to Chicago, but 2 hours and 10 mins to fly back to Cleveland. Kids would say things like the direction the air flows or connecting flights. Eventually someone would figure it out.

Always a fun lesson!

BobcatOU

It's annoying because you essentially operate on two timezones (3 or 4 if you live near a reservation or Arizona). Everything has a descriptor with it. So 5pm becomes 5pm MDT or 5pm CDT, but never just 5pm.

InsomniaticWanderer

Lived in Indiana where parts of the state are in different time zones - had a friend who lived closer west and even though we weren't too far away, he was an hour behind. Trying to schedule times to hang out was not just rare because of distance, but because of the fact one of us would show up an hour late or an hour early almost every single time.

We mostly skype now

WebzForevz

My dad is a teacher in Indiana and he lives this life. My parents live in CST and my dad works in EST. My sister and I also live in Indiana, but we both live in EST. The change confuses my mom, a lifelong Hoosier, so much that it's just family policy to only tell her times in CST and save ourselves the trouble.

myeyestoserve

I don't live near a time zone border, but I attended a wedding once. Got a wedding invitation listing the time of the ceremony and the time of the reception, just like any other wedding invitation. Never thought anything about it.

We went to the wedding ceremony and a group of us were hanging around the church talking after the bride and groom left. Suddenly, someone realized that the location of the reception was located in the next time zone that was an hour ahead of where the wedding was located. Suddenly, it was a huge question of what time is the reception, 5PM in timezone A, or 5PM in timezone B.

slider728

2 new years eve parties

If its getting late in the afternoon and the shops are about to close you can go over the border and have an extra hour

Same as crossing the border when the pubs going to close.

nathanxjackson

Lived on the edge of a state where everyone lived in one time zone and worked in the next state (and time zone) over so everyone just used the state over's time zone, except the schools. So the real time zone was just referred to as "school time" and when you included a time in things you clarified whether it's "next state over's" time or "school time."

I didn't realize that other people's schools ran in their same time zones and grew up thinking everyone's schools ran an hour behind.

Curlyq97

Tijuana / San Diego used to have different dates for daylights savings. Off by a week or so. It was madness. It affected everyone so much Tijuana switched with San Diego instead of with the rest of Mexico

Nghtmare-Moon

I don't live near a time zone border, but Lookout Pass Ski Area straddles the Montana-Idaho border and is in two time zones. I knew this, and knew the ski area ran on Pacific time, and still managed to show up an hour before the lifts opened by accident. Oh well, got first chair.

If you have ever worked for a company where you collaborate with people in other parts of the country frequently this can be a pain in the a-- too. You have to be mindful of their work schedules when scheduling meetings and calling them.

beerigation

I used to live in Chicago (eastern side of central time zone) and West Michigan (west side of eastern time zone). I would go back and forth each week. Stays light really late in Michigan. My car clock is never correct.

And I run an inn so I always have to specify check in time is 2pm EST.

pomakesbento

A few years ago i went on vacation to Arizona and Utah, the week of the time change (last week of October). Lemme tell you, it was damned confusing.

Parts of AZ don't participate in DST, and some of the activities that I did were on the Navajo reservation, which also didn't participate, so I was always asking people what time it was.

floydfan

I grew up near the west edge of EST, and when I was kid who still had an assigned bed time, during my parents essentially delayed it during summer because it would still be bright out at 9pm. It would also be darker in the morning making it harder for me to get up then, say, a New Yorker.

The_Sleep_Enthusiast

...curfew is at 11. Leave boyfriend's house at 11:45, get home at 10:59.

Thank the heavens for backwards Midwestern thinking.

jencheryi

H/T: Reddit