Hillbilly Elegy

formula. “Don’t rich people have
babies, too?” Mamaw had no answers,
and it would be many years before I
learned that rich folks are considerably
more likely to breast-feed their children.
As my job taught me a little more
about America’s class divide, it also
imbued me with a bit of resentment,
directed toward both the wealthy and my
own kind. The owners of Dillman’s
were old-fashioned, so they allowed
people with good credit to run grocery
tabs, some of which surpassed a
thousand dollars. I knew that if any of
my relatives walked in and ran up a bill
of over a thousand dollars, they’d be
asked to pay immediately. I hated the