The full collection of 75 interviews is what oral historians call a random, unstratified sample. It includes speakers ranging from 60 to 96 years of age in 1979, drawn from upper, middle and working classes, with both local and out-of-state origins. The makeup of the collection is actually fairly close to Charlotte's population patterns at the time of the 1980 census in terms of age, sex, and ethnicity. A full range of life and work roles is displayed by the speakers, who include: former mayors, retired city officials, domestic workers and laborers, farmers, mill-workers, nurses, doctors, ministers, wives and husbands, grandparents, aunts, siblings. Just as important for social and cultural history, their birthplaces replicate migration patterns for the region as well.