Hillbilly Elegy

working-class neighborhoods. On my
first day of golf practice, I showed up in
dress shoes, thinking that was what golf
shoes were. When an enterprising young
bully noticed before the first tee that I
was wearing a pair of Kmart brown
loafers, he proceeded to mock me
mercilessly for the next four hours. I
resisted the urge to bury my putter in his
goddamned ear, remembering Mamaw’s
sage advice to “act like you’ve been
there.” (A note about hillbilly loyalty:
Reminded of that story recently, Lindsay
launched into a tirade about how much
of a loser the kid was. The incident
occurred thirteen years ago.)
I knew in the back of my mind that