Summary

Chapter 4 begins with the author’s birth in 1984. As stated previously, he would always consider Jackson, KY his home, but lived primarily in Middletown, OH. By the time he was born, Middletown was still similar to the city his grandparents had moved to in the 1950s. It was largely centered around the Armco manufacturing plant, with a large portion of its family and culture transplanted from rural Kentucky. At the time, the city also supported a thriving commercial area, with restaurants, bars, and a mall. Shortly after however, the city began to decline. Due mostly to the downsizing of the Armco plant, unemployment and poverty rose, while commercial businesses closed and the city’s infrastructure decayed. Vance claims that this development went unnoticed by the majority of Middletown’s residents who assumed that Armco would always be able to support the city with...