Hillbilly Elegy

remember that Papaw had just done
some work on her car, and she was
muttering something through the tears
about taking advantage of him.
Lindsay was a teenager when Papaw
died, at the height of that weird mixture
of thinking you know everything and
caring too much about how others
perceive you. Papaw was many things,
but he was never cool. He wore the
same old T-shirt every day with a front
pocket just big enough to fit a pack of
cigarettes. He always smelled of
mildew, because he washed his clothes
but let them dry “naturally,” meaning
packed together in a washing machine. A
lifetime of smoking had blessed him