Hillbilly Elegy

even your friends. It was to go home and
be afraid to tell your family that you had
disgraced them.
I don’t know why, but after a few
years Mamaw’s views evolved on
fighting. I was in third grade, had just
lost a race, and felt there was only one
way to adequately deal with the taunting
victor. Mamaw, lurking nearby,
intervened in what was certain to be
another schoolyard cage match. She
sternly asked whether I had forgotten her
lesson that the only just fights are
defensive. I didn’t know what to say—
she had endorsed the unstated rule of
honor fighting only a few years earlier.
“One time I got in a fight and you told