"Everything happens for the best,"my mother said whenever I faced disappointment  ."If you carry on,one day something good will happen." Mother was right,as I discovered after graduating   from college in 1932,I had decided to try for a job in radio,then work my way up to a sports announcer.I hitchhiked   to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station and got _ every time.In one studio,a kind lady told me that big stations couldn't risk hiring an inexperienced person."Go out in the sticks and find a small station that'll give you a chance,"she said.I thumbed home to Dixon,Illinois. While there were no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon,my father said Montgomery Ward had opened a store and wanted a local sportsman to manage its sports department  .Since Dixon was where I had played high school football,I applied.The job sounded just right for me.But I wasn't hired.My mother noticed my disappointment."Everything happens for the best."Mom reminded me.Dad offered me the car to hunt a job.I tried WOC Radio in Davenport,Iowa.The program director, a wonderful Scotsman named Peter Mac Arthur told me they had already hired an announcer. As I left his office,I asked aloud,"How can a guy get to be a sports announcer if he can't get a job in a radio station?"I was waiting for the lift when I heard Mac Arthur calling,"What did you mean about sports? Do you know anything about football?'' Then he stood me before a microphone and asked me to cover an imaginary   game.Last autumn,my team had won a game in the last 20 seconds with a 65-yard run.I did a 15-minute build-up to that play, and Peter told me I would cover Saturday's game! On my way home,I thought of my mother's words:"If you carry on,one day something good will happen." I often wonder what direction my life might have taken if I had gotten the job at Montgomery Ward. Why did the writermention his mother's words over and again?
Because his mother liked to talk a lot. Because his mother's words made him sad. Because his mother's words encouraged him. Because his mother's words disappointed him.