his early life was unremarkable. worked in a bank. he was a farmer. on his father's farm in grandview. he opened a haberdasher with his friend in kansas city. and in early 1922, there was a financial crisis in the country, a panic and he and jacobson lost the business and he was 38 and unemployed and living at his mother-in-law's. at the time bess told her mother don't worry harry's going places and her mother said, he better hurry up. the circumstances did not poor -- portend greatness but fate, destiny, chance, god -- something intervened as it would time and again, in harry truman's life. and in this particular instance, in the summer of 1922, as an old army buddy who he'd served in france with, and jimmy had an uncle named tom who was the big political boss in kansas city, in jackson county at the time and they were looking for a candidate to run for judge. which you probably know is sort of like a county commissioner. and truman fit the bill perfectly. he was a baptist. he was a mason. he'd been a farmer. so in 1922, he was elected judge. twelve