Hillbilly Elegy

hair before, and I’d walked by his shop
nearly every day for eighteen years. Yet
it was the first time he’d ever shaken my
hand and treated me as an equal.
I had a lot of those experiences
shortly after boot camp. In those first
days as a marine—all spent in
Middletown—every interaction was a
revelation. I’d shed forty-five pounds, so
many of the people I knew barely
recognized me. My friend Nate—who
would later serve as one of my
groomsmen—did a double take when I
extended my hand at a local mall.
Perhaps I carried myself a little
differently. My old hometown seemed to
think so.