"The old ones died and the the young ones moved away." A cove farmer on the empty coves
"Man is ruining every beautiful thing God put on this earth." Van Zant Bend farmer
"If it will kill a worm, it'll kill a man." Ninety-five year old farmer on pesticides
"People think they know the river, but they don't." Farm wife on a youth's death in the Elk River
"The river is good medicine." A construction worker
"The most religious I get is when I am standing about waist deep in this river." A retired man fishing the Elk
"Whatever you call it, it's still a dump." A local mayor on landfills
"When I was a boy, the Elk flooded twice a year. Now it floods twice a day." River farmer on TVA water releases
"We already have a major industry in Franklin County. You know what it is? Agriculture." A farmer's call-in comment to a radio station
"Go in the spring. Just look for the daffodils." A former cove resident on how to find the old homesteads
"This is a resort. They have people to pick up trash." Sewanee student justifying throwing litter on the street
"I don't see what all the fuss is about. The only thing smells around here is the river." A young mother's view of pollution
"A friend of mine dug a ditch so some land would dry out. The EPA came back and made him fill it back in. If I own a block of land I ought to be able to do what I want with it. There's too much red tape. If you own the ground, it's your ground." A letter to a local paper
"Most of the people come in here, I don't know them anymore. Used to be you could go stand on the square [in Winchester] and 'bout everybody you saw you knew. Now days, in the first place, you wouldn't stand on the square, and you wouldn't know nobody if you did." An old man at a convenience center
"I am a farmer. I just grow it. I don't have anything to do with it after that." A tobacco farmer on the health effects of smoking
"Used to be I knew everybody who came in my post office. Now people come in to get their mail, and I don't even know them." A local postmistress
"You take these little fire departments round here, no good for nothing. Ain't got no water. Can't fight fire with no water. What good it do for that tanker truck to set up there in Winchester? Time it gets out here a house is already gone." A farmer's view of rural fire-protection
"Kill the next one and we'll see what it is." A farmer's advice on distinguishing dove and killdeer
"Oh, Dr. Smith, I don't know why you say such dreadful things. The South is still just the way it was in Gone With the Wind. The only thing different is we don't have slaves." A student comment
"The South is the place where the people who lived there never moved away." A student defining the South
"We ought to pass a law and keep anybody else from coming here." Voice at a town meeting
"If you just could have seen the river before they built that dam." A farmer recalling life along the Elk River
"Oh, Dr. Smith, if Sewanee can just hold on a few more years, it will have missed the 20th Century." A Sewanee alumnus on the prospects for Sewanee's future
"There's hoodlums and heathens everywhere." Radio talk-show caller in Winchester
"We are based on religious beliefs in this country. I say that because we're fixing to celebrate the 4th of July." Local radio comment
"They'd come up happy." Mountain woman recalling river baptisms
"When I was a boy they brought a tree to the mill from Thumping Dick Cove. It was so big the mill couldn't saw it." Recollection of a Sewanee resident
"I drove trucks and when I came across that mountain I said this is the most beautiful place in America. So I sold my house in Colorado and moved here." A new resident of the county
"We are looking for a place that isn't messed up yet so we can open our business." A retired couple surveying county land