Cameron Mounger and I have been friends since we were teenagers. Both of us liked rock 'n' roll, and several years after we left high school, Cam became a disc jockey2.
Recently he told me the story about the day he was down3 to his last dollar. It was the day his luck—and his life changed.
In the early 1970s, Cam was an announcer and disc jockey at KYAL in McKinney, Texas, and had attained celebrity4 status. He met many country-music stars, and he enjoyed flying to Nashville in the company plane with the owner.
One night Cam was in Nashville for an evening at the Grand Ole Opry5. After the show an acquaintance invited him backstage with all the Opry stars. “I didn't have any paper for autographs6, so I took out a dollar bill,” Cam told me. “Before the night ended, I had virtually every Opry personality's autograph. I guarded that dollar bill and carried it with me always. I knew I would treasure it forever.”
Then station KYAL was put up for sale7, and many employees found themselves without a job. Cam landed8 part-time work at WBAP in Fort Worth and planned to hang on to9 this job long enough for a full-time position to open up.
The winter of 1976 was extremely cold. The heater in Cam's old Volkswagen emitted only a hint of10 warm air; the windshield defroster11 didn't work at all. Life was hard, and Cam was broke. With the help of a friend who worked at a local supermarket, he occasionally intercepted outdated TV dinner12. “This kept my wife and me eating, but we still had no cash.”
One morning as Cam left the radio station, he saw a young man sitting in an old yellow Dodge in the parking lot. Cam waved to him and drove away. When he went back to work that night, he noticed the car again, parked in the same space. After a couple of days, it dawned on13 him that this car had not moved. The fellow in it always waved cordially14 to him as he came and went. What was he doing sitting in his car for three days, in the terrible cold?
Cam discovered the answer the next morning. This time as he walked near the car, the man rolled his window down.“He introduced himself and said he had been in his car for days with no money or food,”Cam recalled.
“He had driven to Fort Worth from out of town to take a job. But he arrived three days early and couldn't go to work right away.”
“Then, very reluctantly, he asked if he might borrow a dollar for a snack to get him by15 until the next day when he would start work and get a salary advance. I didn't have a dollar to lend him; I barely had gas to get home. I explained my situation and walked to my car, wishing I could have helped him.”
Then Cam remembered his Grand Ole Opry dollar. He wrestled16 with his conscience a minute or two, pulled his wallet out and studied the bill. Then he walked back to the man and gave him his bottom dollar. “Somebody has written all over this,”the man said, but he didn't notice that the writing was dozens of autographs. He took the bill.
“That very morning when I was back home trying not to think about what I had done, things began to happen,” Cam told me. The phone rang; a recording studio wanted him to do a commercial that paid $500. It sounded like a million. Cam hurried to Dallas and did the spot17, and in the next few days more opportunities came to him out of nowhere18. “Good things kept coming steadily,” said Cam, “and soon I was back on my feet19.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Things improved dramatically for Cam. His wife had a baby. Cam opened a successful auto-body shop and built a home in the country. And it all started that morning in the parking lot, when he parted with his bottom dollar.
Cameron never saw the man in the old yellow Dodge again. But whether the guy was a beggar or an angel doesn't matter.
Cam was tested that old morning—and he passed.
我和卡梅伦·芒杰年少时就是好朋友。我俩都喜爱摇滚；我们中学毕业后没几年，卡姆就成了一名电台流行音乐节目主持人。
最近他给我讲了他穷到只剩最后一美元的那天所发生的故事。也就是在那一天，他的运气和生活出现了重大转折。
20世纪70年代初期，卡姆在得克萨斯州麦金尼的KYAL电台当播音员兼流行音乐节目主待人，算得上是个有名的人物。他认识很多乡村音乐歌星，而且有机会跟老板一道乘坐公司飞机飞往纳什维尔。
一天晚上，卡姆在纳什维尔观看大奥普里乡村音乐晚会。演出结束后，有位熟人邀他到后台跟奥普里的明星们见面。“我没带纸，没法让人签名，于是我掏出一张一美元的钞票。”卡姆对我说，“天亮以前，我差不多得到了每一位奥普里明星的签名。我小心呵护着这张一美元钞票，总是把它带在身上。我知道我会永远珍惜这张钞票的。“
不久，KYAL电台被公开出售，许多雇员转眼间失了业。卡姆在沃思堡的WBAP电台找到了一份非全日性的临时工作，准备坚持干下去，直到转为专职工作人员。
1976年的冬天寒冷异常。卡姆那辆破旧的大众牌轿车的暖气机放出的热量微乎其微；挡风玻璃上的除雾器也完全坏了。卡姆穷得丁当响，生活难以为继。好在他有位朋友在当地的一家超市工作，借这位朋友的光，他能不时地弄回一些过期的盒装电视便餐。“这让我和妻子总算有点吃的，但我们还是身无分文。”
一天早上，卡姆离开电台时，看到一位年轻人坐在停车场里一辆破旧的黄色道奇牌汽车里。卡姆朝他挥挥手，随后就开车走了。当他晚上回来上班时，他发现那辆车仍然停在原处。过了两三天，他终于明白过来，那辆车根本就没动。每次他上下班，那位小伙子总是热情地朝他挥手致意。天气这么冷，他一连三天都待在车里，是干什么呢？
卡姆第二天上午找到了答案。这一次，当他走近那辆车时，那人摇下了车窗。“他先做自我介绍，然后说，他连着几天都待在车里，没钱，也没有吃的。”卡姆回忆道。
“他是从城外驱车到沃思堡来工作的。但他早到了三天，不能马上就上班。”
“接下来，他非常难为情地问我可否借他一美元，好去吃顿快餐，以勉强挨到第二天开始干活，拿到预付薪金。可我连可以借给他的一美元也没有；我车子里的汽油也仅仅够我开到家。我向他解释了我的窘况，之后走向自己的汽车，心里希望，我要是能帮他一把就好了。”
紧接着，卡姆记起了他的那张大奥普里明星们签了名的一美元钞票。他痛苦地犹豫了一下，之后掏出皮夹，仔细瞧了瞧那张票子。然后他返回去，把这最后的一美元给了那个人。“上面写满了字。”那人说。但他没有发现那是几十个人的签名。他收下了那张钞票。
“就在那天上午，当我回到家，尽力不再去想我做的那件事时，事情接二连三地发生了。”卡姆对我说。电话铃响了；一家录音室要他去做一个广告节目，报酬是500美元。这听起来就像100万。卡姆匆忙赶往达拉斯，完成了那个插播在广播节目中间的简短广告。在接下来的几天里，更多的机会从天而降，向他敞开了大门。“好事接踵而至，”卡姆说，“很快我就又经济独立了。”
其他的事，正如人们常说的，都已经成为历史。卡姆真是时来运转。妻子生了个小宝贝；他自己开了一家相当成功的汽车车身厂，并在乡下建造了住宅。正是在停车场的那个早上，当他送掉他的最后一美元时，一切好运从此降临。
卡姆再也没有见到坐在那辆破旧的黄色道奇牌汽车里的那个人。至于那小伙子到底是乞丐还是天使，这个问题已经无关紧要。
卡姆在那个寒冷的早上遭遇了一场考验——而且顺利过关。
1. ballad n. 民歌；歌谣
2. disc jockey电台的流行音乐节目主持人
3. down [daun] adj. 穷困潦倒的
4. celebrity n. 名人
5. Grand Ole Opry 大奥普里乡村音乐
6. autograph n. 亲笔签名
7. put up for sale 拿出供拍卖
8. land v. 弄到，取得
9. hang on to 紧紧握住，抓得很牢
10. a hint of 微量，点滴
11. defroster n. 除霜器，除雾器
12. TV dinner盒装电视便餐（一种加热即食的冷冻快餐）
13. dawn on 渐被理解
14. cordially adv. 热诚地，真诚地
15. get sb. by使…度过难关
16. wrestle v. 奋力对付 （with）
17. spot n. 插播的广告
18. out of nowhere从不知道的地方；从不受注意的地方
19. on one's feet 经济自立