Don't ask author Gary Mielo what it was like to grow up in North Bergen, New Jersey. He's likely to relate personal essays and anecdotes that include "the most heinous experience, the one which can easily produce the deepest and most lasting of scars, is an affliction known as the senior prom." He'll evoke "a time when yellow air raid shelter signs, hanging on the walls of virtually all candy stores, ice cream parlors, and other public buildings, reported the way to alleged underground safety." And narrate the demise of his 1955 DeSoto "while traversing one of the world's most heavily trafficked truck routes, the infamous Tonnelle Avenue." Formerly an Associate Professor and coordinator of Journalism and Film Studies programs at a New Jersey community college, Mielo worked for several newspapers and magazines. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The San Francisco Chronicle, Writer's Digest, Today's Freelance Writer, and ETC: A Review of General Semantics.