Hillbilly Elegy

The new perspective went both
ways. Many of the foods that I ate once
now violated the fitness standards of a
marine. In Mamaw’s house, everything
was fried—chicken, pickles, tomatoes.
That bologna sandwich on toast with
crumbled potato chips as topping no
longer appeared healthy. Blackberry
cobbler, once considered as healthy as
any dish built around fruit (blackberries)
and grains (flour), lost its luster. I began
asking questions I’d never asked before:
Is there added sugar? Does this meat
have a lot of saturated fat? How much
salt? It was just food, but I was already
realizing that I’d never look at
Middletown the same way again. In a