Today, I am thankful for those who appropriately sound the alarm to warn of impending harm.
Each year, the National Football League (NFL) introduces new rookies into the league with a face-to-face orientation session, where these first year players are introduced to the complexities of life as a professional. Among the litany of topics discussed are the importance of integrity, financial planning, and professional behavior. For many years, the NFL would invite Herm Edwards, a former NFL player and coach, to attend these sessions and share his perspective of what he wished he knew when he was a bumbling rookie. With his energetic, comical style, the sage Coach Edwards would inspire the rookies with some hard learned lessons of life as a professional athlete. He would share warning signs regarding those precarious scenarios that might place these novices in an awkward, compromising position. Of all his cautionary message, the one that resonated with me was the following: If you find yourself out at the club past 12 AM, it might be best to pack your stuff and head on home. In the words of Coach Edwards, “nothing good happens after midnight.”
For the most part, Coach Edwards is correct in issuing this alarm. Nonetheless, I can recall at least one time in US History where an action after midnight saved the lives of many.
On this day (Ap 18) in 1775, a silversmith living in the North End of colonial Boston embarked on a perilous horse ride that alarmed the countryside on the other side of the Charles River of the impending arrival of the British troops to Lexington and Concord. Paul Revere had received intelligence from Dr. Joseph Warren, a Boston patriot, that the Redcoats might be heading to Lexington to capture the two most vocal opponents to their oppressive rule, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, In addition, rumors were floated suggesting that the British were likely to continue onwards to Concord to confiscate and destroy the ammunition, gunpowder, and cannons intended for the colonial resistance. So, after two warning lights were placed in the Old North Church, Paul Revere secretly crossed the Charles in a rowboat at around 11:00 PM that evening. He mounted a borrowed horse named ‘Brown Beauty’ sometime close to midnight and galloped past what is today Medford and Arlington until he reached the home where Adams and Hancock were staying. Similarly, another patriot, William Dawes, took a different route through Brookline, Cambridge, and Arlington to reach the same home. The countryside was warned and colonists were prepared to meet the British in Lexington the next day.
However, there’s a part of this story that was not eloquently told in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s commemorative poem of Paul Revere’s Ride that I thought I might share. Neither Revere nor Dawes ever made it to Concord. On their way, they encountered a young physician, Dr. Samuel Prescott, who happened to be “returning from a lady friend’s home at the awkward hour of 1 AM.” After an evening of courting, Dr. Prescott decided he should probably heed Coach Edwards’ advice, so he packed his stuff and headed home. When he intercepted Revere and Dawes on his homeward route, he opted to join them on their ride to Concord. Although Revere & Dawes would be detained by British patrol, Dr. Prescott would successfully navigate his way through the familiar woods surrounding Lexington to reach Concord sometime close to 2 AM. The warning alarm was successfully issued to the townsfolk of Concord, and the munitions were saved.
For once, something good happened after midnight. There’s always an exception to the rule.
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