The Times They Are A-Changin'

Released by Bob Dylan in 1964, the song, The Times They Are A-Changin', came out three years after Louisville had already made a time change. In 1961, the city moved (without really moving, of course) from the Central time zone to Eastern.

Parts of the state still remain on "slow time" and like it that way. Though you might wonder why, since the sun comes up and goes down an hour earlier.

On July 15, 1936, at the height of a record drought and heatwave, light dawned over the city of Louisville at 5am Central Time. The sun came up at 5:33. At the end of the long, hot day, the sun went down at 8:03pm, and the last of the light disappeared about 8:30.

Six months later, when the Ohio River passed flood stage on January 15, 1937, and the woes of the Great Flood began, Louisville grew light around 6:30am, with the sun rising at 6:55. The sun then set at 4:47pm, the light of that short winter day completely gone by 5:15.

It's not surprising that the refugees remember the 1937 Flood as wet and cold and dark.