B. K. Showalter�s articles often appear in AEV, a magazine published by Contemporary Historic Vehicles Association for vintage auto aficionados. And, CHVA�s national website features his Vent Window Views, a column of humor and nostalgia about autos and the road-warriors who love them. Automobiles and travel played a part in his life from the day of his birth when his arrival interrupted a family road trip just as they reached Clarinda, Iowa. After seventeen years spent on the family�s farm, he entered college and escaped that rural isolation forever. To paraphrase an old song, �Ya can�t keep�em down on the farm after they�ve seen coeds!� Showalter later gained the means to… see the world and to interact with a real-life �cast of thousands� by going to work for a major airline. Travelers provided an unending parade of drama and comedy and, not surprisingly, the characters who populate his stories often exhibit behaviors noted during the thirty years he spent at that �day job.� Assignments in various mid-western and west coast locations gave him real-time exposure to changing lifestyles and national angst during an era when Vietnam and �Flower Children� owned the headlines. His recent novel, CA$H SCOW, portrays a number of individuals affected by the stresses prevalent in that period. Nonetheless, that tale of suspense and action utilizes the comic elements endemic in that Age of Aquarius. Showalter�s talent for generating laughs is further illustrated in his upcoming fictional memoir DOOMSDAY MARBLES. His early years in the rural mid-west provided a wealth of material for a humorous tale that rivals Jean Shepherd�s oft-televised �The Christmas Story.� Showalter now resides in Oregon�s Rogue River Valley. Between sessions at his computer, he tours America in a 45 year-old Ford. Reader comments are welcome; access his website at http://bkshowalter.weebly.com/ for contact information.