This story was excerpted from an interview in September 2026 with Sam and Sandy.

Sam  I mean, I was born here, and that’s really all I know. 

Alli Crandell  And now, what out of your siblings, what order were you in? 

Sam  I was seventh out of ten. 

Alli Crandell  Wow! And you, you were mentioning that- how many others of your siblings were born in this space? 

Sam  I’m not 100% sure. I think just one or two more. 

Alli Crandell  Wonderful. And were were the others born at home, or where were they born? 

Sam  Most of them was born at home. Some was, two of them was born in Virginia. My dad worked coal mines-

Alli Crandell  Okay, 

Sam  -and then he moved to North Carolina. Well, he was from here. Him and my mom moved back to North Carolina. 

Alli Crandell  Oh wow! 

Sam  And we raised tobacco farms. 

Alli Crandell  Mm-hmm. Tobacco is a big thing. What about you? 

Sandy  I don’t remember, but my daddy said it snowed all day long on April 2nd. 

Alli Crandell  Oh my gosh! 

Sandy The day I was born, and I don’t remember. I remember coming down here, like when you have to take your smallpox, your little cube of sugar. That was polio. Polio was the little cube of sugar. I remember eating sugar in there, and then I remember getting the smallpox vaccine, and that’s all I remember. And I was four. I was three out of four, and the three youngest were born here. One in ’60, me in ’62, and my younger brother in ’63. 

Alli Crandell  Wow, that’s amazing. And so, it’s interesting. It’s like just in terms of how far did your family have to come in order to get to this space? 

Sam  Mine about 16 mile. 

Alli Crandell Wow, 

Sandy Mine was about 20 mile, maybe. We lived at New Dell. 

Alli Crandell  Okay 

Sandy  So it was probably 20 mile. 

Alli Crandell  And was this the closest hospital to to y’all? Wow, that’s beautiful. 

Sam  Yeah, we lived way up on Ball Mountain. Ain’t nothing ‘tween Ball Mountain and Burnsville. 

Sandy  Well, there was a hospital in Spruce Pine. My older sister was born at Spruce Pine. 

Alli Crandell  Okay, 

Sandy  And there was a hospital there, but I think this must have cost less. The reason we came down here because there was four of us in five years. 

Alli Crandell  Wow! 

Sandy  So that was a lot.