We are independent. We have a contrarian's streak, and if something doesn't make sense, we don't want to do it.
And now we are alone in the continental U.S. This morning some counties in
Indiana switched to daylight-saving time, leaving just Arizona and Hawaii.
Of course, people who have been here long enough know Arizona has been on daylight-saving time before.
The whole country went on DST during both World Wars to save energy.
After 1945 however, states and communities across the country were allowed to stay on DST or opt out. Arizona went off right away.
The nation became a time puzzle as states and communities were able to pick if, and even when, they would switch their clocks.
It was a mess best illustrated by the fact that the Twin Cities - Minneapolis and St. Paul - sometimes were an hour apart.
Finally, in 1967 the Uniform Time Act was instituted, putting the entire country on daylight-saving time.
Everybody had to do it for one year, and then states could opt out if they wanted to.
Farmers nationwide complained vehemently but nearly every state just stayed with the status quo.
But not Arizona.
It didn't make sense to people here. We had enough sunshine and didn't need to "save" any.
Besides, the sun stayed out so late here during the summer that if we set our clocks ahead by an hour it would be almost 10 p.m. by the time the sun set in June and July.
The owners of drive-in theaters complained vehemently. This was nearly 40 years ago and drive-ins actually had some juice.
So in March 1968, the state went standard and stayed there.
Which means people here will be getting phone calls for the next couple of weeks asking, "What time is it there?"
But we don't care.
We never saw a need to change our clocks and switch our watches, so we won't do it.
Before we get too smug though, we need to remember there was a time when our independence put us in an awkward time frame.
For a while people living in the Territory of Arizona actually switched to something called "Phoenix Time."
There was a long-running debate about whether Arizona was more closely affiliated with
California and the West, or
Colorado and the Santa Fe Railroad in New Mexico.
A now-laughable compromise was reached. "Phoenix Time" split the difference, putting us half an hour after Pacific Time and half an hour before Mountain Time.
It was dropped in 1910, and now we just set our clocks and let the world move around us.
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