Product Description A CLASSIC OF WESTERN NARRATIVE NON-FICTION This portrait of a gumball entrepreneur's life in 1950s America is a slice or retail business history and a funny freelance memoir all rolled into one. When James Nelson decides to move his family out West to California in 1952, he takes the leap into entrepreneurship by buying a slew of gumball machines. The ad guaranteed quick profits and easy money, but comic frustrations were what he got. Savvy modern readers will laugh at Nelson's charming naiveté while millennial freelancers will identify with his determination to keep on after endless setbacks. The gumball machine is an iconic symbol of 1950s Americana, and while the story chronicles Nelson's foibles with gumball entrepreneurship, it's the funny characters he meets along the way that are the true stars of this funny memoir. His larger-than-life descriptions of the characters of San Francisco and Sonoma county paint historic California as a fun scene—even for a man who makes his living one grubby penny at a time. A fun read for fans of humorous travel writing, Sonoma County or San Francisco narratives, or anyone wanting to get an insider view of start-up from the days before Silicon Valley. About the Author James—Jim—was born in Denver, schooled there and in New Haven (code word for Yale), spent four WWII years in the Navy, then six in New York as an editor for Business Week. After marriage and the birth of their first child, the happy couple moved to Sonoma, California. Jim freelanced there for five years (code for until the money ran out). One of the original Mad Men of the more relaxed West-coast variety, Nelson spent 23 years on the creative side of a San Francisco advertising agency. His first novel, On the Volcano, was published in 2011. He and Mary-Armour now live happily ever after in Marin County, California.