The street he lives on had never had a name, and he had never had a house number. Like most residents of McDowell County, he had to pick up his mail at the post office. When he first tried to order a computer, the woman from Gateway asked him for his address. “You have to live on a street,” she told him. “You have to be somewhere.” She called the power company and put a representative on a three-way call to confirm Johnston’s location. Sometimes deliverymen found him, but sometimes they didn’t. He often had to drive to Welch (pop. 1,715), about four miles away, to meet a new UPS driver.
