The mailman brings new 'Friends' every day
I'm like a kid again, waiting anxiously for the mailman to arrive so I can rip open the letters and see what's inside.
It reminds me of my high school days, waiting for letters from colleges to see if I'd been accepted or not. The University of Michigan finally said yes, after putting me on the waiting list, so that was a great day for the Ecker family.
It also reminds me of my senior year at college, when I wrote all those letters to the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, New York Times, Yonkers Herald-Statesman and Ann Arbor News to see if they'd give me a job in their sports department. The answers were No, No, No, No and No, so that got a little discouraging.
Finally, one of my journalism professors at Michigan told me that a little newspaper in Fort Madison, Iowa, was looking for a sports editor. It wouldn't pay much at $148 per week and I'd have to cover the Lee County Board of Supervisors and occasional prison breaks -- in addition to a half-dozen high schools and the rodeo -- but I was 22 and anxious to get started.
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