Time Zones

Being on the East coast, I know that most of the rest of the US is behind us in time. I have no trouble remembering this. I never remember where geographically the time zones oficially change, but the concept I get. Who decided that Tennessee should be half in one zone and half in another? Texas has all but a tiny corner in the Central time zone - why? Same with Idaho and Florida. What made them decide this - shouldn't the state be entirely in one time zone? And North Dakota has the lower left corner in the Mountain zone - but parts that are just as far west in the upper left corner are in the Central zone. This is just craziness. Since this seems to be (for the most part) an arbitrary geographic deliniation, why not just make it follow state boundaries? Or at least make it a straight line from North to South?

My other problem with time zones is that when I travel I never seem to be able to think the other direction. I still think everyone is behind me. So when I call East, I may be getting them an hour later than I wanted to. When my son was a senior in high school, I went on a business trip into the Central Time Zone. I was supposed to call in the morning to wake him up (since he wouldn't otherwise go to school) but I invariably called him too late. I would call him at 8:00 am, thinking I was reaching him at 7:00 am, and I was really calling him at 9:00 am. It was no use, I couldn't wrap my head around times changing in the other direction.

Now when I travel with my job I have no expectations of calling anyone at the right time. I just call their cell and if they answer. . . they answer. If they don't . . . oops.