Richard Lee Hoffman Jr.:
I mentioned earlier that I have a lot of images in my head that I'd like to get. It's those images like the dirt road or the old barn or the tobacco field. Those are the things that I see that are going to be gone. And I think they're going to be gone whether the road comes or not. It's just a matter of time. I see the road not so much as its own problem; it's just sort of a symptom of development and growth in general that was going to find Madison County sooner or later anyway. But I hope that there are parts of the county that retain that. [...] That's the hardest part of it, in my mind. Is seeing a way of life – it wasn't really my way of life – but seeing the mountain culture be whittled away a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more until it's something in a museum.

- Richard Lee Hoffman Jr., grew up in Madison County and returned to raise his family

Interview with Rob Amberg, November 8, 2000. Southern Oral History Project, UNC.
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