Mathew Easterwood is a relatively new preschool teacher and part-time aspiring writer living in Champaign, Illinois. He is pleased to note “Demise of the Gas Station Attendant” marks his first professional publication. Recent defunctness in his life includes a longstanding, irrational fear of diaper changing; his backpack from high school that lasted through college and the relentless abuse of two years in Eastern Europe; and his hope in most of humanity over the age of eleven.