Oral history interview with Sam Parker, December 5, 2000
Subtitle: Interview K-0252, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Amberg, Rob, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Country life; Self-reliant living; Home; Social change; Rural development
Other titles: Interview K-0252, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Sam Parker, December 5, 2000; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: 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.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Sept. 24, 2007).

Interview participants: Sam Parker, interviewee; Rob Amberg, interviewer.

Duration: 01:28:57

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Steve Weiss and Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files : 85.5 kilobytes, ca. 162 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, Interview K-0252, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 34 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.