At Least Indiana Can Agree to Spring Forward

Mike Lerman calls Eastern time a hardship when he is observing the Jewish fast during long summer days. (By Peter Slevin -- The Washington Post)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Mike Lerman does not ask for much. He only wants his stomach, which is forced to live on Eastern time, to join his heart where it has always been happiest, in the Central zone.

Never is that more annoying than during long days in summer when Lerman cannot break the Jewish fast until sunset, which sometimes doesn't reach his South Bend home until 10 p.m. He figures grumbling of all kinds would stop an hour earlier if only South Bend aligned itself with its brethren to the west.

"It's a killer," Lerman says.

When Mark Catanzarite thinks about time zones, he hears telephones ringing.

"People are constantly calling the South Bend station and asking which time they're on," says Catanzarite, who helps oversee the northern Indiana commuter railroad that runs between South Bend and Chicago.

Of 20 stations, only South Bend is on Eastern time.

"I've always called myself a Midwesterner," Catanzarite explains. "When people ask where South Bend is, I always say we're 90 miles east of Chicago. I never say we're 130 miles north of Indianapolis."

Time is a sensitive subject these days in Indiana, in a struggle as much about identity as about economics, schoolchild safety or geographical clout. Perpetual tweeners, Hoosiers cannot agree where their future lies, a problem that does not afflict the longitudinally pure inhabitants of the East and West coasts.

It all started with daylight saving time. Ending a debate that had lasted half a century, the state legislature voted last year that the entire state would observe "fast time" starting April 2, 2006.

So close was the House tally that the measure appeared defeated 51 to 49 until two legislators changed their minds after voting, perhaps after checking their watches.

The switch flipped the result. No longer would residents of 18 counties spring forward and fall back while the inhabitants of the other 74 counties lazed along as before. The crazy ending would have amused former Indiana GOP chairman Rex Early, who memorably straddled the issue during a gubernatorial debate in 1996.

"Some of my friends," Early said, "are for putting all of Indiana on daylight saving time. Some are against it. And I always try to support my friends."