This story is excerpted from an interview conducted in Yancey County, North Carolina in September in 2026 with Dietra Robinson Smith.

Oh, okay. Well, when the hurricane came down there and it on Piney Hill, it wiped out all of our the whole flat  of our food for the winter. But I can remember times down there when the family would come together and neighbors would come together for food, for working in the fields. They would just all come together and it wasn’t I’m going to get paid for this or… it was real family.

But I can remember the time that, but you didn’t get paid for going and helping your neighbors or going and helping your friends. I can remember those days when family and friends were family, not like it is today, not like it’s separated like it is today, you know. But family and friends around the Hall was family and friends.