I’m going to write about Daylight Savings Time today. Let me say at the outset that I don’t like Daylight Savings Time. I am a morning person. I like it when the sun is up before me, so I can spend most of my time in the daylight. I am also old, and go to bed pretty early, and I don’t like going to bed when it is still light out.
Last week the sun came up at my house about 7 a.m., about when I get out of the shower, pull up the blinds on the bedroom window, and make the bed (unless Lillian is sleeping in). This week it came up about 8 a.m. I hate it when that happens.
What’s got me thinking about this is the fact we just switched to Daylight Time, and there’s a bill in the North Dakota Legislature, HB 1259, which has passed the House and is awaiting committee action in the Senate, to yank North Dakota out of the Daylight Savings Time scheme, and remain on Standard Time all year around. I’m for it. Kind of.
I know it is controversial, so I want to propose a slight change to the Legislation. My idea stems from the fact we have two different times zones in North Dakota. Most of the state is on Central Time, but a handful of counties in the southwest corner of the state, generally on the west side of the Missouri River, are on Mountain Time.
Now, I’ve kind of gotten used to Dave Thompson saying, “The time is 7:06 Central, 6:06 Mountain,” but I’d like to make his job easier, for about 7½ months of the year.
My suggestion is that we yank the counties in the Central Time Zone out of Daylight Savings Time, but let the counties on Mountain Time use it.
That way, from March to November, it will be the same time in the whole state. The same time in Bismarck and Dickinson, after all these years. For more than half the year. Actually, the same time in Fargo and Dickinson. Grand Forks and Dickinson. I just think that would be really nice for the folks in Dickinson. I lived there for a number of years in an earlier life, and I know what a pain in the ass it was being in a different time zone than the rest of the state.
It’ll also do a favor to the folks who ive in McKenzie and Dunn Counties (take a look at the map). Right now, those two counties are split into two different time zones, because the time zone boundary kind of follows the Little Missouri State Scenic River as it passes through them. Under this idea, the whole counties would be on the same time for much of the year. That seems like a good idea.
But here’s another benefit. Montana, just down the road from Dickinson and Medora and Beach, is on Mountain Time, and they observe Daylight Savings Time. So if we let our Mountain Time folks go on Daylight Savings, then Dickinson and Glendive, and Medora and Wibaux, would still be on the same time all year around, just like they are now. And it would be the same time in Glendive and Bismarck and Fargo, for about 7½ months of the year. Imagine, it would be the same time in Fargo as it is in Billings all summer.
Okay, okay, I know Fargo and Moorhead, and Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, would be on different times all Summer. But so what? It would give all those Fargo people who go to their lake cabins in Minesota every weekend an extra hour of beach time in the evening.
But if we take the whole state out of Daylight Savings Time, as HB 1259 is written now, then out west, all Summer long, it will be an hour later in Wibaux and Glendive than in Medora. Medora will be on Mountain Standard time, Wibaux and Glendive will be on Mountain Daylight time. Gonna take those eastern Montanans a while to figure out what time they have to leave home to get to the Medora Musical on time.
Besides, it’s just weird to think of it being an hour later in eastern Montana (actually all of Montana) than in western North Dakota.
So, Legislators, let’s fix HB 1259. Get rid of Daylight Time east of the Missouri, so the sun’s up when I get up. And it’s dark when I go to bed. (I know, I’m a little selfish. I actually only live about a thousand yards east of the Missouri.) But make the time the same all across the state for more than half the year. The Summer half. The best half.
The Prairie Blog 
how about putting the entire state in the central time zone? It’s odd how the line now goes from the SD boarder north then west.
Risch
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Jim,
Are you seeking to curry favor with the Republicans? I don’t think you will convince the Legislature with this modest proposal. But you can certainly try. This is a unique idea, for sure.
My two cents worth:
1. I grew up in Stark County, which is still located in the Mountain Time zone. When I was a kid, Morton County, which includes Mandan, was also on Mountain Time. Somewhere along the way, all of whole Morton County got co-opted into the Central Time zone. And probably other parts of western North Dakota, which are not on Interstate 94. I was only paying attention to I-94 at that time.
2. I attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, so every time I would go home to visit my family, I was dealing with a time change. I would gain an hour going home, then lose it returning to school. Kinda cool for a kid from Stark County. Kinda glamorous. TWO time zones, don’t you know!
3. After I graduated from UND, I got a job using my degree in Rolette County. I lived in a town 90 miles from the nearest stoplight, to my way of figuring, and three miles from Turtle Mountain Reservation. More mind expanding experiences. Downright rustic, yet humbling. Lots to learn in this bright, shiny world.
Last month, I followed Leonard Peltier’s homecoming to Belcourt with interest on the Internet. They played Bob Marley’s Redemption Song at the party. Downright multicultural, egalitarian and a fine choice of a song. Welcome home, Mr. Peltier.
4.In Williston, my children were preschoolers. They would protest at 10 pm bedtime in the midsummer, “But Mom, it isn’t dark yet!”
I remember heading to Sidney, Montana, shortly after I moved to Williston and thinking at the North Dakota-Montana border that I would need to change my money to Canadian. Oops, I wasn’t living nearing the Canadian border anymore.
Thanks for letting me reminisce about the time zones. Be well, Jim. I hate to tell you, but your modest proposal will never fly. But it’s a fun thought.
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I spent a majority of my life along the Red River Valley, spent thirty good years in Bismarck, and am now on the east side of the river in Minnesota. What you describe, Jim, may work well for the western part of the state but for people who live in Moorhead but work in Fargo, it would be a nightmare, especially for parents with school-age children. How do you get them off to catch the bus and be there after school if you are an hour off for the months mid-March to June, and mid-August to October? It would be a nightmare for employers. I have always thought that the time zone in North Dakota should be uniformly Central Time and let the Mountain Time start at the state’s border.
Just a thought from a Minnesota state of mind,
Jan Jury
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The vast majority of us do not own lake homes in Minnesota. The people in Wahpeton, Fargo West Fargo and Grand Forks lives would be greatly impacted. People in North Dakota who work in the border Minnestoa cities and kids are in the schools and daycares in North Dakota…and they would be an hour different!! Very shallow thinking to back this Bill. Two thirds of North Dakota’s population lives within 100 miles of the Minnesota border.
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Ty, I remember the days of Mandan on Mountain Time and Bismarck on Central. We used to dash out to the Strip for one more beer before going home.
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