Hillbilly Elegy

astronauts or football players or action
heroes. I wanted to be a professional
puppy-player-wither, which at the time
seemed eminently reasonable. By the
sixth grade, we wanted to be
veterinarians or doctors or preachers or
businessmen. But not steelworkers. Even
at Roosevelt Elementary—where, thanks
to Middletown geography, most people’s
parents lacked a college education—no
one wanted to have a blue-collar career
and its promise of a respectable middle-
class life. We never considered that
we’d be lucky to land a job at Armco;
we took Armco for granted.
Many kids seem to feel that way
today. A few years ago I spoke with