Hillbilly Elegy

bad: She said it to everyone she beat,
and she beat everyone at gin rummy.)
Years later, every single one of my
relatives—Aunt Wee, Uncle Jimmy, even
Lindsay—repeated some version of
“Mamaw was really hard on you. Too
hard.” There were three rules in her
house: Get good grades, get a job, and
“get off your ass and help me.” There
was no set chore list; I just had to help
her with whatever she was doing. And
she never told me what to do—she just
yelled at me if she did anything and I
wasn’t helping.
But we had a lot of fun. Mamaw had
a much bigger bark than bite, at least
with me. She once ordered me to watch