I wrote a post in March 2013 about Daylight Savings Time; it was one of a continuing rant about 1) Indiana observing it and 2) an explanation of the idiom “fast time, slow time”. Well, somehow foreign internet users chose. the address of that post as a depository for all sorts of comments, some in English, some not So, I deleted it, but not until I had copied it. Let’s try it again.

Quentin smiles when I use the phrases “fast time” and “slow time” – he’s on the phone and I can’t see him, but I know he is smiling. Maybe we used the terminology a lot in this area because for a long time Indiana did not go on Daylight Savings Time, even though we were in the Eastern Time Zone (since 1961). (Counties around Chicago and Evansville observe Central Time) Michigan did and Ohio did and mother’s house is a couple of miles from the Michigan border and Ohio is one county east, so we were always aware we had to pay attention to the location an event was scheduled to occur because we didn’t want to be an hour late getting there and or an hour early coming home. (Then again, those close to Chicago counties were just a bit west . . . which meant you could out-think yourself real easy.)

Instead of talking about going on Fast Time in the spring and then back to Slow Time in the fall, we had it on out minds all summer long. Daylight Savings Time is “Fast Time” – no other way to say it, and we said it a lot. I suppose if you don’t live near a Time Zone Boundary, you just change your clock and forget about it.

Now, here’s the tricky part: If you live on one of those borders, and the Eastern/Central one runs through an area with a lot of towns and not much vast empty prairie, you also tend to refer to the Eastern Zone as Fast Time and Central Time as Slow Time, even though both sides move an hour ahead. Lots of people work in Fast Time (Eastern) and live in Slow Time (Central) and the opposite holds as well. So, I suppose you could say there’s Fast Fast Time(Eastern) and Slow Fast Time (Central) in the summer and Slow Slow Time (Central) and Slow Fast Time (Eastern) in the winter.

Good Heavens, I’m confusing myself and will probably have to draw circles and arrows in red magic marker . . .

Anyway, the thrust of this is that we here in this part of Indiana are really attuned to knowing what time we are on. Right now we’re on Fast Time. Fast Fast Time. Now if Governor Mitch Daniels had listened to the people and not held with Daylight Savings Time, we would right now be on Slow Fast Time; and if we were in the Central Time Zone where we should be, we would be on Fast Slow Time.

Maybe I should cite a picture: MAP and point you to this article on Indiana and Time Zones. (Like you care.)