What a miserable Monday morning here in Boston with heavy rains, a bit of flooding, grey skies and high winds as The Nor'easter stays with us through today, the day of The Boston Marathon, which will still run its 26 mile course. I'm debating whether to drive anywhere today and there's 10,000 folks getting ready to run...go figure! It's a week to celebrate endurance! It was April 19th, 1776 when Paul Revere made his famous ride warning the populace that "The Yiddish are Coming", for the first 3 miles until somebody corrected him.
While Paulie was finishing that, an unsung hero (and this is true) was just getting started. His name was Israel Bissell and Izzy left the same day, after picking the short straw, I guess, from the western edge of Boston (Watertown, MA) for a 345 mile journey by horse to Philadelphia to warn all the towns along the way that the war had started.
He made it too. On the first leg... to Worcester (which, fyi, is pronounced "wuhsteh", not "war-chester").... he rode so hard that his horse dropped dead under him upon arrival ....two hours after he left . Besides the horse dying, the bad news is that 231 years later it takes about the same amount of time to get from Watertown to Worcester by car.
Bissell rode all through Connecticut and got to New York City at 4pm on April 23rd after leaving the 19th. This is approximately the same amount of time it takes a modern US Air passenger to make the same journey. He then rode 24 hours to Philadelphia, normally a six hour ride, but he took the Garden State Parkway , even though his wife had warned him, "Izzy, don't take the Parkway", but ,of course, he didn't listen......and he had no quarters on him.
Because.....He had carried with him a pass for the tolls, given to him by Mr. Revere himself, called an "IZZY Pass" but of course, it didn't work. No tollkeeper would give him a free run through the tolls and then , adding insult to injury, no New Jersey-ite would change a dollar for him. One storekeeper said he'd give him change if he bought gum, but gum wouldn't be invented for 100 years. He couldn't wait so he wound up having to take side roads and it took him 24 hours to get to Philly where 8,000 people greeted him and asked, "What took you so long?"That was it. He did his job and was forgotten by history mostly because Longfellow couldn't think of anything cool that rhymed with Bissell..."thistle, whistle, nissell" ...or Israel ...." bail, tale, quail':"Listen my children and I'll you a tale,of a hard riding rider named Bissell, Israel."
So remember Izzy...inventor of the IZZY pass, as we celebrate endurance. He died at age 71 in 1823!
