DeFilippo: Longing for the Return of the Pony Express

The postman no longer rings twice. Often not even once. Back in the day, the Pony Express and its daredevil riders became early western cinematic celebrities for braving treacherous terrain, marauding bandits and worse weather than Texas and yet relaying saddlebags of mail coast-to-coast on horseback in 10 days. The Pony Express had a relay team of 80 riders that provided the nation’s first transcontinental mail service from 1860-61, linking the newly-formed state of California to the rest of the United States before the company was driven out of business by the new-fangled telegraph in 1861.