Jason Goodwin

May 19, 2024 | laphamsquarterly.org | Brent Cunningham |Scott Korb |Jason Goodwin |Nathaniel Rich

Betty Jo Patton spent her childhood on a 240-acre farm in Mason County, West Virginia, in the 1930s. Her family raised what it ate, from tomatoes to turkeys, pears to pigs. They picked, plucked, slaughtered, butchered, cured, canned, preserved, and rendered. They drew water from a well, cooked on a wood stove, and the bathroom was an outhouse.