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I had decided that I wanted to earn my living as a writer and the only place in Waterbury where they paid you for writing was at the local newspaper. My opportunity came when the paper had an opening for a night janitor. Opportunities are easy to miss, because they don’t always show up in their best clothes. Sometimes opportunities look like beggars in rags. After an eight-hour shift in the shop tossing thirty-pound crates I hustled down to the newspaper building and cleaned toilets, with a vague plan that it would somehow lead to a reporter’s position.

I had decided that I wanted to earn my living as a writer and the only place in Waterbury where they paid you for writing was at the local newspaper. My opportunity came when the paper had an opening for a night janitor. Opportunities are easy to miss, because they don’t always show up in their best clothes. Sometimes opportunities look like beggars in rags. After an eight-hour shift in the shop tossing thirty-pound crates I hustled down to the newspaper building and cleaned toilets, with a vague plan that it would somehow lead to a reporter’s position.

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
John William Tuohy
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates.
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Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 281566; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.