Oral history interview with Sam Parker, December 5, 2000

This interview is more about a lack of industrialization in North Carolina than the state's development, but offers an interesting perspective on growth. Sam Parker, Madison County Probation/Parole Officer, praises rural life in the interview. Parker left a job at an insurance agency in the 1960s to settle in the hills of Madison County, where he lived for a while without electricity and grew his own food. In this interview, he discusses his decision to leave the comforts of suburbia and the appeal of living a somewhat ascetic lifestyle, where community connections take the place of Internet connections. Parker sees this lifestyle declining, but does not condemn development or mourn its passing.