Hillbilly Elegy

friend to sleep over. We fished in Dad’s
pond, fed horses, and grilled steaks for
dinner. That night, we watched Indiana
Jones movies until the early-morning
hours. There was no fighting, no adults
hurling insults at one another, no glass
china shattering angrily against the wall
or floor. It was a boring evening. And it
epitomized what attracted me to Dad’s
home.
What I never lost, though, was the
sense of being on guard. When I moved
in with my father, I’d known him for two
years. I knew that he was a good man, a
little quiet, a devout Christian from a
very strict religious tradition. When we
first reconnected, he made it clear that