“Everything happens for the best,” my mo...

“Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever I   36 disappointment. “If you can carry on, one day something   37 will happen. And you’ll realize that it wouldn’t have happened if not for that   38 disappointment.”

Mother was right,   39 I discovered after graduating from college in 1932. I had decided to   40 a job in radio, then work my way up to sports   41 . I hitchhiked（搭便车） to Chicago and   42 on the door of every station—and got turned   43 every time.

In one studio, a kind lady told me that big stations couldn’t risk hiring an   44 person –“Go out in the sticks（偏远地区） and find a small station that will give you a   45 ,” she said.

I thumbed home to Dixon, Illinois.   46 there was no radio—announcing job in Dixon, my father said Montgomery Ward had opened a store and wanted a local athlete to   47 its sports department. Since Dixon was where I had played high school football. I   48 . The job   49 just right for me. But I wasn’t hired.

My disappointment must have   50 . “Everything happens for the best,” Mom   51 me. Dad offered me the car to job hunt. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa. The program director, a wonderful Scotsman named Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.

As I left his office, my frustration   52 . I asked aloud, “How can a fellow get to be a sport announcer if he can’t get a job in a radio station?”

I was waiting for the elevator   53 I heard MacAethur calling, “What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?” Then he asked me to stand before a microphone and to broadcast a (an)   54 game.

On my way home, once again I thought of my mother’s words. I often wonder what   55 my life might have taken if I’d gotten the job at Montgomery Ward.