Creative Nonfiction - Fall 2017

CREATIVE NONFICTION 23

DINTY W. MOORE

Beyond the Primordial Ooze:

“Real” Americans and the

Supposed Divide Between

Science and Religion

DINTY W. MOORE is author of

the memoir Between Panic &

Desire and many other books.

He has published essays and

stories in the Southern Review,

the Georgia Review, Harper’s, the

New York Times Magazine, the

Normal School, and elsewhere.

eff, john, eldon, dave, ben, and bruce meet most

weekdays around the back table at the only McDonald’s in

Ravenswood, West Virginia, chomping sausage McGriddles

and swapping theories about why “it has all gone to hell.” One

reason, they tell me, is because the aluminum plant south of

town has shrunk from 12,000 to fewer than 1,000 employees,

and another is that “people nowadays simply have no common

sense.” The men offer a variety of examples, focusing on

out-of-town visitors who can’t drive, don’t think, and huddle

mindlessly, blocking the fast food eatery’s back entrance.

The six of them are retired, having once earned their livings

as electricians, aluminum smelters, mechanical engineers, and

dairy farmers. They seem inordinately proud of the fact that

Ravenswood is said to have once had more churches per capita

than any other town in America.

J