Moore, Suzanne

Interview date: August 15, 2016
Interviewee: Suzanne Moore
Interviewer: Melissa Ziobro
Transcriber: CastingWords.com/Leigh Anne Woolley, Monmouth University Student

Melissa Ziobro:  This is Melissa Ziobro, specialist professor of Public History at Monmouth University, interviewing alum Suzanne Moore for the Monmouth Memories Oral History Program. Today is August 15th, 2016, and we are on our campus in West Long Branch, New Jersey. 

Suzanne, thank you for coming out today. Can you state your full name and date of birth, for the record? 

Suzanne Moore:  Suzanne E. Moore, March 2nd, 1985. 

Ziobro:  Tell me a little bit about your early life. Where were you born and raised? 

Moore:  I was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. Grew up in Belford, New Jersey, and later moved to the other side of Middletown, kind of like near the border of Red Bank, in 2000, 2001. 

Ziobro:  What were your family dynamics like? Who did you grow up at home with? 

Moore:  It was just me and my parents. I have halfsiblings that are my dad’s, but they did not live in the house. They were fullgrown by the time I was born. It was just me and my parents, and our pets. 

Ziobro:  Had either of your parents gone to college? 

Moore:  Yes. My mom went to Pace College in Manhattan. I believe she graduated in January of ’68, and my dad went to a few different schools, mostly from what I remember him saying, is EmbryRiddle University of Miami. I believe he graduated sometime in the ’50s. 

Ziobro:  What did your parents do? Did they work? 

Moore:  Yeah, my dad had various jobs. Some things that he would mention before I was born was working for Ford Motor Company. He worked at Disney World at one point. He worked for Ringling Brothers at another point. When I was growing up, he work for American Management Association in New York City, and then later on he held other little jobs as a bus driver. 

He’s very much into wood working, so he has been and still is doing…I don’t know how to explain it. 

Ziobro:  Like custom pieces? 

Moore:  No, he doesn’t really build for making things to sell, but he will work with companies and be like their rep in an area. If you were interested in purchasing a table saw, and you wanted that particular company’s table saw, the company will contact him and have him talk to you and work with you to tell you what it’s all about. 

My mom, on the other hand, she worked for Smith Barney up until about a month before I was born, and technically speaking, I guess you could say she’s still on a maternity leave. 

[laughter] 

Moore:  She never went back. She never worked a day in my life. 

Ziobro:  What were some of your hobbies growing up? 

Moore:  Reading. When I was a little bit older I got into gymnastics, although I would never [laughs] be able to do much. I actually would move over to the trampoline, which I have started up again recently. 

Ziobro:  They say it’s very good cardio. [laughs] 

Moore:  Oh yes, it is. The first time, if you ever go to it, and try to just do an hour’s workout one night, you will feel it for the next five days. 

Trying to think what else. I didn’t really travel too much as a kid, although my mom took me to Hershey every year. We would go to other little sites, like Edison’s place when I was obsessed with Thomas Edison, at one point. 

Just hanging out around the house, bicycling, hanging out with friends, things like that. 

Ziobro:  Tell me a little about your education prior to coming to Monmouth. Did you go to public schools, private schools? What was your education like? 

Moore:  All private and Catholic schools. I went to this little place, it was on a farm, in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, it was called Mountain Hill. It’s still there, but it’s under new ownership since I’ve been there. I’ll tell you, up until college it was probably the best years. It was so fun. 

Ziobro:  What years were you there? What grades? 

Moore:  I was there…I think they took me when I was twoandahalf, so that was nursery school, and then you go to preschool, and then you went to kindergarten. 

I went to two Catholic elementary schools. The first one was Saint Agnes, grades one through three, and then my parents switched me out of there to Saint James from fourth to eighth. I went to Red Bank Catholic for all of high school. 

Ziobro:  Did you feel that you had positive experiences in Catholic school? 

Moore:  A little bit. In high school, that wasn’t all my favorite time. The education was very good, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t know. I just was counting down the years to get out of there. 

Ziobro:  Did you always know that you would go to college? Was this an expectation from the time you were little, that you would just go on to college after high school? 

Moore:  Oh yeah. I remember, I was at a friend’s house in fourth grade, and she lived off of Norwood. When my parents came to pick me up that day, they drove over to Norwood, and across the street was Monmouth University. 

I remember my dad saying, “That’s Monmouth University.” I’m like, “What do you mean by university?” He said, “College!” College, OK. 

It was right around that time it was changing from college to university. I was like, “Oh, there’s one this close to our house? I thought they were all far away.” I thought that was something you had to go to, to go far away. 

When I heard there was one close by, from when I was in fourth grade, I’m like, “I want to check out that school.” 

Ziobro:  Were most of your high school classmates also going to college? 

Moore:  Most of them, yeah. 

[crosstalk] 

Ziobro:  Most of them. Did you even look at or apply to any other schools when the time came? Or you were stuck on your fourth grade decision, you are coming to Monmouth? 

Moore:  Stuck on fourth grade decision. I applied…What did they call it, early decision? The one that where if you applied and they accepted you, you are committed to go. The deadline was November 1st of 2002 and the day that we let out for winter break at RBC was the day my big binder came in the mail. 

Ziobro:  Then you started in fall of 2003. Did they offer you any financial aid to entice you to come? 

Moore:  Maybe. I don’t remember. 

Ziobro:  What were some of your first impressions? As you are, this brand new freshman thrown into college life, do you remember what you were thinking? 

Moore:  I’m trying to remember orientation. I just remember it being a little overwhelming. Just sitting there going, “OK, now,” trying to figure out how the friend thing was going to work out. You don’t know anybody. I was one of, maybe, a little handful of my high school classmates to go to Monmouth. 

I remember one girl ended up being in my Psych class. Otherwise, I just remember during orientation just being on the very first night, because we had a hypnotist show to go to that night. 

I do remember one girl coming over and talking to me and we ended up being friends through most of college. We met a few other people and slowly that’s how our group started to grow a little bit. 

Ziobro:  Were you commuting or living here on campus? 

Moore:  Commuting. 

Ziobro:  Were you comfortable with that or were there any times when you wished you could just stay here? 

Moore:  Commuting was good because it saved money. I was comfortable, obviously, living at home, just drive here. It does get you used to the real world to some extent. You drive to work and then come back. 

The only thing was commuting takes away from the camaraderie a little bit. If your friends are here, they’re living here and they decide, “Hey, let’s go do suchandsuch adventure,” the last person they really think about is the commuter. 

They just up and go. That’s it. The next day you find out, “Oh, you guys went to that movie,” or “You went to that place. Why didn’t you call me?” “Oh, we didn’t think of it.” 

That was the only thing. The other part of commuting that is not the greatest is when it snows. A couple of times I would end up staying in the dorms with my friends if it was supposed to be a really bad snow storm. 

Ziobro:  About how long was your commute? 

Moore:  It’s like what I just did this morning. It’s about half an hour. 

Ziobro:  Was there a commuter club then? 

Moore:  If there was, I wasn’t a part of it. 

Ziobro:  Did you declare a major right away, freshmen year? 

Moore:  Yeah, right on my application. Signing in  History, Secondary education. 

Ziobro:  History, Secondary Education. Did you think at that point that you wanted to be a high school teacher? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. 

Ziobro:  Obviously, knowing you as I do, you’ve not taken that path. At what point did you change your mind? 

Moore:  Probably after graduation. Student teaching made me realize that maybe I didn’t exactly want to go that route. Student teaching at that point too, was too late in the game to change your major. 

Although I did have little thoughts in the back of my head a couple semesters prior, but I was determined not to put anybody down. It was like, “I don’t want to be that person who changes majors 50 million times.” 

I figured I could probably figure out something to do. When I was going on interviews for teaching and wasn’t getting anywhere, I was like, “OK, I need to go back to grad school and get my degree that way in History and see what else I can do with this.” I liked the history part, that part. 

Ziobro:  Just for the record, I’ll state that Suzanne is now a public historian and we’ll talk more about her career in public history in a little bit. You actually did go through the process of doing your student teaching? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. 

Ziobro:  How did you find that? Is there any advice you’d give to students who need to embark upon that process now? 

Moore:  I would just say research the school that you’re going to be at, keep on top of the work, and really make sure that this is something you want to do in life. Student teaching, sometimes will think this is going to be exactly what you want to do, and then when you’re actually put in that position, you may or may not find out that that’s the case. 

If you’re still in your practicum years  feel yourself out with the inklings you’re having. If you’re sitting there having doubts, find out why. I don’t mean to be negative about it, but sometimes I will think back and look back, and, “I should have listened to myself.” 

Ziobro:  Where did you do your student teaching? 

Moore:  Raritan High School in Hazlet, New Jersey. 

Ziobro:  What grade? 

Moore:  Mostly 11th. It was US History II, four times a day. 

Ziobro:  About the classes you took, do any stand out in your mind, and if so, why? 

Moore:  In History or all over? 

Ziobro:  Either, anywhere. 

Moore:  There would be several. It would be the Holocaust History with Professor Douglas. I really enjoyed, this was not a History class in the History department, but it was a History class in the communications. History of Motion Picture with Dr. Dell. 

That’s really awesome. I was hoping they would almost have that as a dual between the two, because even though it does look at it in a…how does the movie industry look at continuity, and stuff like that, there was a lot of history thrown in there. 

Maybe not so much like how it portrays certain historic events, although we did look at a few, but it was just history in a different light. Let’s see, what else? I did enjoy my Math class, which is surprising, but I had a really great teacher there and the classmates were really good. 

Ziobro:  You recall who taught that Math class? 

Moore:  Professor Dietrich. I believe she’s still here because I ran into her last year. What else? Most of my History classes, I took five classes with Dr. DeRosa. Took a few classes with Dr. Veit. Even Dr. McKitrick although I took some more with him in grad school. 

Ziobro:  How would you describe your relationship with your professors, and do any stand out in your mind as particularly influential? 

Moore:  The History professors, I mostly had a good rapport with all of them. Mostly the History I’s though were the most influential, I would say. Dr. McKitrick, especially in the writing section. I developed writing well under him, as well as a few of the others. 

I enjoyed Dr. Bluemel in the English class with the Lit. I was finally able to get an A in her class. 

I struggled through the writing, but I got through to WPE under Professor Roshak, I believe that was her name, in English 102, but it was Dr. Bluemel in English 202. That was pretty good. I remember her class very well. 

She even took my suggestion one day. We were reading “The Sandman,” and I’m like, “You know there’s a Metallica song by that name?” She printed out the lyrics and gave it out in class and we went over it. [laughs] 

Ziobro:  That’s funny. [laughs] I want to talk a bit about your memories of the physical campus. Were there any big changes that occurred while you were here? Or, have any big changes happened in the year since you’ve left? 

Moore:  If I can start before I came here when I took the tour of the campus in 2002, I forget which…maybe both buildings were under construction, but McAllan Hall and Plangere were brand new. I was here their second time. Let me see. I’m just trying to think of any real changes. 

I know that when I was in the student center, eventually that pit disappeared, and I forget what year that was, but I remember it was later, it was more in grad school. There was always, for some of us who grew up around that pit, we still had that funny feeling that we had to walk around that new circle that’s there. 

Ziobro:  I still do it. 

Moore:  I’m learning to walk across it now, but I’m like, “You’ve got to walk around that pit,” and people look at you strange, like, “Why you walking around it?” [laughs] Because there used to be a pit there that had fountains. A lot of changes physically with offices in that student center. The LCAC, which I think is now First Year Experience, or something like that? That changed. 

I’m trying to think. Some new dorms now, but I don’t think any were built when I was here. Now they’re doing this massive change with Howard Hall to Edison Hall. Edison Hall got that new façade on that one side. I remember them talking about Bey Hall needing the extension which they now have with, I forget the name of the new one. 

Ziobro:  Pozycki. 

Moore:  The MAC was built while I was in grad school. I remember there was the 700 building behind now where the MAC is, and that was the writing center and Philosophy department. I was in the old 800 building, and that was where I took History of Art. That was another professor, by the way, that was really good, and his name escapes me at the moment. 

Ziobro:  Oh, no! We’ll have to pull up your curriculum chart! [laughs] 

Moore:  He was a fantastic History of Art I professor. He took all of his photographs and used them on an old projector. 

Ziobro:  Was he a historian or was he from the Art department? 

Moore:  Art department. That’s going to bug me now. 

Ziobro:  I’ll look it up and make an addendum. 

Moore:  OK, but yeah. I took that class in there, so I remember the floors being tilted, and the little rickety staircase, but now they have the new, I call it still 800 building, but it’s brand new… 

Ziobro:  The Gallery. 

Moore:  Maybe. It’s the tall one. The old, I guess, barn? 

Ziobro:  Yeah. Where were most of your classes? 

Moore:  McAllan Hall for education, as well as for the two classes of Spanish that I took, which as an addendum to another question you asked earlier, the Spanish classes were really good. RBC’s education getting honors Spanish IV, it really helped with the intermediate classes I took here. 

Ziobro:  Can you still converse in Spanish? 

Moore:  [Spanish]. It does help from time to time in my job. Sometimes you’ll get someone on the phone and… 

Ziobro:  I wish I’d kept up with mine better, because it is a great skill to have. Where did you hang out when you were not in class? Even as a commuter, sometimes you’ve got time to kill? 

Moore:  Student center. Mostly, the student center. Sometimes, if it was really good weather, we’d go out and play Frisbee. That was usually on the lawn where Pozycki Hall is now, so you used to be able to see straight through the parking lot. 

That was another change. I’m sorry. I keep going back and forth on questions here. 

Ziobro:  Please. 

Moore:  The parking lot changed. It used to be from the student center down to the fields. Now, it runs parallel to the student center. That threw me for a loop. 

[laughter] 

Moore:  On that lawn, you used to be able to see straight from Edison Hall to the parking lot, and we used to play Frisbee out there at times. Sometimes, we just go over to someone’s dorm and hang out, or we would go and explore such as the find that Doggie Cemetery. 

Ziobro:  Where is the pet cemetery? I’ve heard of it. I’ve never seen it. 

Moore:  You’ve never seen it? 

Ziobro:  I’ve never seen it. 

Moore:  Are you serious? 

Ziobro:  Describe it for us. 

Moore:  When you’re on Cedar and you’ve got the tunnel that goes underneath Cedar, there is a driveway. It’s the original driveway to the… 

Ziobro:  Goes to a little guard house. 

Moore:  It’s right there. Actually, not the guard house, but there’s that well. It’s right between the well and Cedar, and there’s usually two tombstones. They claim there’s a third that comes and goes, but there’s two spots where the dogs were buried from any person or family. 

Ziobro:  Again, that’s great. Tell us about some other spots you’ve explored. Anywhere in the library or Wilson? 

Moore:  I remember in the library. That’s another change that was done. You’re triggering all these memories that were… 

Ziobro:  That’s perfect! That’s the ideal situation. 

[laughter] 

Ziobro:  That’s what we want to happen. 

Moore:  When I first started here, the library, you had to enter from the back. Then, they started doing all the construction because it was…That library, I remember it was not very…You’re scared to go [laughs] into it, but now, it’s very nice and all. 

Mostly, Wilson Hall, you try to explore, but you don’t want to get into too much trouble going to places you’re not supposed to. I remember grad school. I had never been up to the solarium up on top, and it was a… 

A student here, who was working  and I was an assistant  and he was just a student employee. He wanted to know about the solarium. We walked up to the top one day. It was around three or four o’clock in the afternoon, and they’re still working. We were like, “Can we just take a look?” 

They were like, “Sure. Come on in.” We were just looking around and like, “OK, so this is what it looks like up here.” Mostly, wander around, take long walks down to where you can cross the bridge a little bit to the President’s house and walk back up. 

That’s another place they changed. The President’s house. 

Ziobro:  Do you have a favorite building on campus? 

Moore:  I don’t know if I would say if any one of them really stands out as being a favorite. 

Ziobro:  How would you characterize the student body during your years here? Were there identifiable cliques? 

Moore:  The cliques were mostly the fraternities and sororities, but even then, sometimes, you’ll get somebody who will come out of that and be sociable with nonGreek life. Really, no, I don’t think there were too many cliques. You saw groups form, but usually, they were welcoming of other people. 

Definitely, a group that formed a lot was the group around the pool table in the old pub which was here in my first year. 

Ziobro:  For the record, tell everyone where the pub was. [laughs] 

Moore:  It’s changed multiple times now, but if you go in the student center  in the cafeteria area  there’s a separate food vendor in the enclosed space that they can lock up at night. 

Ziobro:  Currently, Dunkin’ Donuts. 

Moore:  Oh, really? OK. Might have to get a bagel. [laughs] That started out as, I want to say, the Blue Hawk Pub. In the daytime, the bar area was, obviously, locked up, but you could still go in. This was still the time where you could smoke inside. 

Not that I ever smoked cigarettes, but I saw a pool table while I learned how to play pool. People who didn’t want to go outside smoking in the freezing cold, they could go in there. You could play pool. 

I don’t know how many quarters they put in that pool table, but I learned how to play pool. There was a few of us all. We played in there during class time, and then, at lunch time  when the maintenance guys were on lunch break  they would come in and play with us, too. 

They wouldn’t mind playing with the students. Sometimes, we would let them have a few rounds by themselves, but then, they would jump in and play with us. There was one guy who would come in and play, and he taught me a few skills such as putting English on a cue ball. Unfortunately, he’s no longer with us. 

He was a Marine in Iraq, I believe. 

Ziobro:  Oh my goodness. Do you remember his name? 

Moore:  Chris Cosgrove. 

Ziobro:  Because I know you personally, I know that you are an avid pool player. Did that start when you were at Monmouth? 

Moore:  I had a friend in high school who had a pool table, and that was the first introduction I had. When I came here, it was readily available. You’d go down to the info booth, give your ID for a couple of cue sticks, the balls, and then, go and play. 

Ziobro:  I wanted to throw out that followup question, but let’s go back to Chris for a moment. Was Chris a good friend of yours? 

Moore:  I only knew him as an acquaintance playing in the pub. I didn’t know him that well. I never played up against him, but I remember there was one time where I was in there by myself. He came walking in. I was playing as if I was playing myself against myself as an opponent. 

I remember he was going to say, “Hey, can I play too?” “Sure.” He was, then, showing me a couple of tricks of the game. 

Ziobro:   We were talking a bit about the student body. Did you feel that you were exposed to diverse people and cultures while you were here, and were people generally accepting of diversity? Can you comment on that? 

Moore:  I know there were different, say, clubs. There was the Spanish Club and all. I saw fliers for all of that. I don’t know so much with the diversity. I saw all different people throughout the campus. I didn’t see anything disallowing diversity, but in inclusion, I felt that it was possible. I don’t know how to explain it. 

It was there, but if people would diverse that came over, sure, join us. I didn’t see it, necessarily, always happening. I didn’t see exclusion, but I didn’t see, necessarily… 

Ziobro:  More natural selection, not a negative thing? Interesting. Tell me about any extracurricular activities. Did you get involved in any clubs or organizations? 

Moore:  History and Anthropology Club. 

Ziobro:  Tell me about the History and Anthropology Club when you were in it. 

Moore:  I don’t know when it was first established. I should know as President of it, [laughs] but it seemed like it was in its infancy a little bit. We would meet, but we were more interested in trying to figure out what to do rather than take this club and build it up. 

We were more interested in trying to figure out what to do with it. 

Ziobro:  What to do, like fun events, or what you were all going to do, like your careers? 

Moore:  Fun events. 

Ziobro:  Did you have a faculty adviser? 

Moore:  Yes. It was Dr. Veit. I remember there was one guy Adam. I was a general member for the first year, and then, in the second year, this guy…He was a grad student, though. Adam…I want to say his last name was Powell. He became President. I became his VP, and a couple of other girls became secretaries. 

Ziobro:  Did you have elections and everything, or… 

Moore:  Yeah. 

Ziobro:  …was it naming people? 

Moore:  It was elections, pulling a name out of a hat or whoever we vote was…If you wanted to be President, all right, who’s all in favor of Melissa being President? Raise your hand. That thing. 

When Adam could no longer be President  which was only a few months in, actually  something came up in his personal life, job, or whatever that he could no longer do it. We bumped me up to President. One of the other girls came up to being VP. 

One girl was happy enough to be Secretary, and then, someone else became Treasurer. I was President for most of the time after that. I think all the way to student teaching because then I couldn’t be there. But under my time there, I was able to get us to go on a weekend trip to Washington, DC and Mount Vernon. 

Ziobro:  Were you able to get any funding from the school for that, or did you guys pay everything out of pocket? 

Moore:  We had funding a little bit through the school because the school gave you a little bit of money. That was enough to pay for the trip, but that was about it. I don’t remember paying anything out of pocket, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t. I don’t remember it. 

Ziobro:  Was that the big activity during your time here? 

Moore:  Yeah. That was March of 2006. 

Ziobro:  Did you guys ever do any fundraising? 

Moore:  I don’t remember. I was looking for ideas. 

[laughter] 

Moore:  There’s stuff I could tell you that we did in high school. That would give you some ideas. 

Ziobro:  We’ll talk more offline. 

[laughter] 

Ziobro:  You mentioned earlier one of your first activity at Monmouth was going to see a hypnotist show. Do any other events that you went to on campus stand out, like student activities type of events for entertainment? 

Moore:  They did BuildABears every December, so I always went to that. This was in grad school. They did a ghost tour of Wilson Hall. I was obsessed with that [laughs] at times, and I was watching Ghost Adventures on TV and stuff like that. 

I’m like, “OK. I want to go to that. That sounds really cool” because there’s always these stories where a maintenance worker sees Mrs. Guggenheim walking through the library at night and stuff like that, so you’re like, “Let me go to it.” 

It’s not going to do any harm or anything like that. It still leaves me with a little bit of skepticism because I don’t know how much the guy knew beforehand of the history, how much manipulation he had of the tool because he never seemed to let go of it. Long story short, we went in through Wilson Hall. We started up in one of the thirdfloor living rooms which is now a classroom. 

Didn’t get much activity up there. Then, we went down to the secondfloor board room. Supposedly, the boy from Woods Theater was there. We don’t know why. Why was he in Guggenheim? Not Guggenheim. Wilson Hall. 

We went into that sun room off of the… 

Ziobro:  Let me stop you for a minute. How did they determine that it was the boy from Woods Theater? 

Moore:  He was going through with some form of a device, and we had to ask yes or no questions. He would tell the spirits in the room how to manipulate the machine. If the answer was “yes,” do so many things with the lights. If the answer was “no,” do lesser things with the lights. 

It was a string of lights, and depending upon how far they would go. I’m going off the memory of seeing lights on this thing. Anyway, he would add it, and we were trying to be like, “Is somebody here?” You would see the string for “Yes.” 

“Are you soandso?” No. “Are you soandso?” No. “Are you soandso?” Yes. Something like that. We went from in the boardroom, down to that greenhouse area. Not a greenhouse, sunroom, off of that first floor there that overlooks, shadows the break room. Nothing in there. 

He’s like, “Is there any other place we could possibly go to?” Someone suggested going down in the basement, to the chapel, and I’ve never been in there before. We all go in there, it’s dark, they close the door, and it’s cold. We’re sitting in there, and he’s holding the thing. He’s like, “If there’s anybody in here, please let us know your presence.” 

He explains to the ghost, again, what to do, and there’s a movement. We start saying, “Are you soandso? Are you soandso? Are you soandso?” Finally, we land on, “Are you Mrs. Guggenheim?” The thing goes off the wall. 

Ziobro:  In Wilson? 

Moore:  Yeah. He’s like, “Just shout out yes or no questions.” We’re asking. Sometimes we would get a no, sometimes we would get a yes. Supposedly he’s in there for quite a while. Finally, I yell out, “Do you think the Parson family is new money?” If this was real, you would have thought that I asked her the most insulting question, or something that triggered her, because the lights were going off the wall. 

Apparently, if Mrs. Guggenheim was really there, and if you really want to believe for a minute, I hit a nerve. Sorry, Mrs. Guggenheim. 

Ziobro:  Do you remember who led the tour? 

Moore:  I just remember he was a ghost hunter from Connecticut, or somewhere in New England up there. He apparently does have a museum or something up there. 

Ziobro:  Any other activities that stand out in your mind? 

Moore:  I did take a trip with the Student Activities Board to New York to see Broadway’s “Beauty and the Beast,” which is no longer there. I did do that, and then again in grad school, I went on their Student Activities Board trip to Disney World. That was for a good part of a week. 

That was in January, so that was actually nice to go down to Florida when it is not so hot. They all knew who the New Jerseyans were, because we were going around in shorts, and the Floridians all had the coats on. 

Ziobro:  Were those trips funded by student activities? 

Moore:  They were, to an extent, because they were able to get us discounts, but yes, we did have to pay a lot out of pocket for that. It was a cheaper trip than if I had gone on my own, but they did ask for a lot of input from potential participants. For example, do you or don’t you want your meal plan attached to your ticket? 

I, and a few other people said no, because we know how to work around finding less expensive meals than what we could pay on the card. 

Ziobro:  Did you graduate in four years? 

Moore:  Yes, I did. 

Ziobro:  You did, which is not easy, especially today. 

Moore:  No. 

Ziobro:  It’s taking a lot of people five or longer. 

Moore:  What helped were the summer sessions. I did take at least three or four sessions throughout the summer. I’m trying to think. Intro to Political Science, Sociology I think were the first two. Yeah, that was the first summer, then there was History of Africa. Was it Native Americans with Dr. Schindler? Yeah, and then the field school archaeology. 

Those are the five I definitely remember taking in the summers. Plus from RBC, I had taken a course through Georgian Court. That was our high school religion teacher taught that during our religion class in Red Bank, but we got three credits that we could transfer to most any college in the country. I already came in with three credits used for an elective. 

Ziobro:  Any other advice you’d give students today to help them graduate in four years? Summer classes, getting some credits in high school, if you can. Any other advice for getting it done in four years? 

Moore:  Really, that’s basically it. The only thing, it’s up to them how well they do in their classes. You’ve got to stay in the moment. Take your credits seriously, because if you don’t do well in the course, you might be forcing yourself to repeat it. The other thing is, when you’re in your classes like that, talk to your professors. 

I tell my own students this. You’ve got to come to me. I’m not going to chase you down, because if I think you’re happy with a C, you’re happy with a C, because you’re not coming to tell me otherwise. Talk to your professors. I remember in freshman year, IT 100, I had Dr. Drucker. I apparently didn’t do so great on a homework. 

I remember not understanding too much of that homework, so I went and talked to him, and he showed me. All of a sudden, things after that started to click, and so I ended up getting an A in that class, and 100 on the final exam. 

Ziobro:  Open communication is important. 

Moore:  Yeah. 

Ziobro:  You mentioned a field school. Did you do field schools while you were an undergrad? 

Moore:  I did one. 

Ziobro:  Which one? 

Moore:  Abraham Staats House in South Bound Brook, summer of 2006. 

Ziobro:  Tell us a little bit about it. 

Moore:  That one had an interesting twist, because my dad actually knew the people who owned that house back in the ’40s and ’50s. He actually talked to Dr. Veit a little bit about what they were finding out there. He said they used to shoot clay pigeons out there. What did we find? Some clay pigeons. 

That was interesting, because you got to see the house, and then we were learning all the fundamentals of archaeology, and six weeks of doing that, that was a lot of fun. It was hard work, ninetofive, for one class, once a week, but at least you got to be outside. 

It’s always fun. You keep looking to see what you’re going to find. Even if the unit ran dry of artifacts, a shovel test would say, “Hey, maybe now it’s time to go over here and try that one.” The other thing I learned was don’t ever hire me for surveying work. [laughs] 

Ziobro:  Why? Do tell. 

Moore:  There was this one guy, I think his name was Ed. He was a student with me in that class. The two of us were told to learn how to survey with Dr. Schindler. He would tell us what to do. He’s like, “OK, now survey the house.” Yeah, it didn’t come out where it should belong. [laughs] 

Ziobro:  That’s funny. Did you work while you were completing your undergraduate degree? 

Moore:  The only time I worked was on campus for orientation. Otherwise, I didn’t work. I focused solely on studying. 

Ziobro:  Did you feel that you had strong advisers? Whether it was formally your advisers, or just mentors that you sought out? Did you think that if you asked for help, if you needed help, you could get it? 

Moore:  One department, yes. The other department, not so much. A lot of times, I felt like they could trust me enough to be able to figure out my own schedule, and what I needed, because I figured out how to read the curriculum charts. 

Every student should be able to, but I felt I was advised well, like I said, in one department, but in the other department I was shown, “Here’s what I want to take.” “OK, go ahead. Go sign yourself up. You saw me. Here, let me check the button for you.” 

As far as, like I said, the teachers, the professors, who are all usually pretty good at being able to go and talk to about anything. 

Ziobro:  You are a graduate of our Master’s program as well. At what point did you decide that you continue on for your Master’s? 

Moore:  Spring of ’07. 

Ziobro:  ’07, that was the year you were supposed to graduate with your undergrad? 

Moore:  Yeah, spring of ’07. 

Ziobro:  A last minute thing, if you’re in your last semester. What was the tipping point for you? What made you decide that you’d go on for your masters? 

Moore:  This whole thing, student teaching, I liked the history, but I wasn’t too sure about the teaching, so I figured I’d go for the degree in the subject. Plus, being able to do so, I could always teach it at the college level, see how that is, because there is definitely a difference between teaching high school versus college. 

I figured I would study history, and that may be able to open up some doors for other things in the history realm, rather than just teaching. 

Ziobro:  Do you know that there’s a difference between teaching high school and college? Can you describe the difference for us? 

Moore:  One difference is whether or not the students want to be there. Of course, in the early years of college, usually you’re going to get students who are being essentially forced by their parents to be in school. Maybe the parents know something. If they just give their kids that one little, gentle push, they can get there. 

Others will put their feet right into the ground. “You’re not going to get me there, you’re not going to get me there.” When they get there, they just totally brush everything off. In high school, they’re mandated to be there up until a certain age. They’re going to cause behavioral problems, sometimes in class. 

A lot of days now, the principals don’t want to hear about it. Sending them down to the principal’s office is only if they’re being a complete disruption to the class, to the point where you can’t control them anymore. The principal usually comes back and says to the teacher, “Why couldn’t you handle your class?” 

Whereas in college, if they don’t want to be there, they’re more than free to go and walk out the door. Maybe they don’t feel good. They can walk out the door, but then they can come back next time as long as they keep up on their work. I teach at Brookdale, attendance is mandatory. I allow them one absence, so really if they feel they don’t want to be there for a day, there is your free absence. 

I don’t need to know the details of your personal life. I get the excuses, why they didn’t do certain things, but it’s another world where you can treat them as adults and be like, “Just take responsibility.” It’s a different level of teaching, too. Plus you can get into all the details about everything. You expect them to be able to research, and read things. I have to teach enough. 

You come in the class knowing, whereas in high school, I’m teaching you first, and then you go back and read over. It’s a transition I like helping them work through. Also, a few weeks in, it clicks. They come to class, then suddenly some of them start to pick up on, “Oh yeah, I did read that in my textbook.” 

Ziobro:  That’s an excellent point. For the record, you’ve taught at both Brookdale Community College and Monmouth University, right? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. 

Ziobro:  It is fall of 2007, you decide you are going to go on for your Master’s. Did you apply anywhere other than Monmouth? 

Moore:  No. 

Ziobro:  You were happy at Monmouth, staying at Monmouth? Was it a big adjustment for you, going from the undergraduate to the graduate classes? Did you feel like there was a definite change in the level of work required? 

Moore:  The one big change was having to read a book almost once a week, and truthfully, I was never really big on being told what to read, so that was a bit difficult for me, especially when I had to read it within a week. 

Sometimes, if I’m being forced to read a book, and I’m not into it, I might understand everything that’s being told to me, but if it’s just not jiving with what I like to read, I do fall asleep over the books. 

That happened to me, even all the way back in high school, so I don’t really like to be told what to read sometimes. That was a bit difficult. Sometimes I would just skim. Don’t tell my professor this. Sometimes I didn’t, but I would pay more attention. If it was something that I just could not get into with reading, I would just pay more attention in class. 

Hear what my other classmates were saying about the book. Maybe, at times, I was a little bit more quiet in class, but I would pay attention to what they were saying, what the professor would be saying, and then it would all be like, “Oh, OK.” 

Sometimes they would go back and be like, “Let me see what they had to say, go back, and try to read it again.” 

Sometimes, that would work, as far as trying to get through. That was probably the biggest change, was not so much necessarily work work to do, but it was the reading. Sometimes, even now, when I’m reading stuff, I might read one book that I’ll be interested in, but then there will be a gap before I pick up the next book. 

Ziobro:  Now, you started your Master’s in fall ’07, correct? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. 

Ziobro:  When were you complete? 

Moore:  I got my defense for my thesis in August of ’09, so my diploma arrived in early September of ’09. 

Ziobro:  What was the title of your thesis? 

Moore:  ”Perceptions of Joseph Bonaparte and the United States  the Relationship between the Two of Them.” 

Ziobro:  You did some field school work at the Bonaparte mansion, right? 

Moore:  Yeah. 

Ziobro:  Can you tell us about that? 

Moore:  I was out at Bordentown, New Jersey. There’s the Divine Word Missionary that’s there now, but out on their lawn, or the whole property, and some other pieces of land that’s around there that’s not attached to their property as it is today, is the Bonaparte Point Breeze estate. 

Long story short with him, after Napoleon lost at Waterloo, which I have been to, essentially you can say the whole family scattered, especially the men. Not so much the women. Europeans weren’t really going to go after the women, but more so the men. They got Napoleon, and he was exiled for the final time, but they were after mostly his brothers, Joseph being one of them. 

Joseph escaped to the United States, and he came under a pseudonym, the Comte de Survilliers. He landed in New York. There’s a rumor that one of his former soldiers and the Spanish army recognized him and said, “Ah, you’re still alive,” but that’s a rumor if that really happened, on Broadway, no less. 

Upon his identity being known now, he went down to Washington to see President Monroe. President Monroe basically said, “I don’t want an audience with you. I do not want to talk to you. You are allowed to live here. I will not send you back, but you are not to create any diplomatic ties with anybody, including me, while you’re here. Just go and pretend you’re an everyday American citizen.” 

He went back. He, at first, was not allowed to buy property in the state of New Jersey, because at that time, foreigners were not allowed to do that. Finally, New Jersey changed its laws, and he through the legislature a party in this estate that he bought. It was originally owned by the Sayre family, the same family, I think, of Sayreville. The same spelling, anyway. 

He had this house, and it burned down one night, a few years into his ownership. We believe he made extensions to the house, a couple of wings. We’re not sure if it is Ushaped or Hshaped, because there’s paintings, but the paintings are from far away. 

It burned down one night, and they believe what happened was he had a visitor. He wasn’t even home, but he had a visitor who left the fire burning in his fireplace in his room, closed the door, locked the door and left. Just a stupid mistake, and the servants realized that the room was on fire. They couldn’t get in, and then the house went up in flames. 

He came home to find the people of Bordentown going into the house and pulling out all his possessions, because he had things from Europe that he might have taken while he was king of Spain and whatnot. He built the stables nearby. When he had that house, he converted the stables into his new house, and it was off away from the cliff. 

That way if it, too, caught fire, the winds wouldn’t fan it as much, and maybe he’d be able to save the house. What we were doing with the field school was we were looking for that first house. We found a couple of corners. My unit found the corner. Sean McHugh, who is now an instructor here, his unit found a corner, but we couldn’t find the other, I think the northeast and northwest corners, but we found the two southern ones. 

What was interesting, too, I remember in a shovel test that would determine us opening up that bigger unit that we would eventually have, a few of us were standing there watching Dr. Veit take the sharpshooter, and sending it down into trying to break up these bricks that were just piled in, obviously from the house. 

We all were standing there, and we’re looking at each other because we suddenly smelled smoke. We knew one of the other students at another pit smokes pipes. We looked, nope. He’s not smoking right now. Why would he be coming down this far? 

We finally figured out, Dr. Veit hit an air pocket, and there was still a strong fire smell down below. He hit it with the sharpshooter, and it came up. 

Ziobro:  In what year was the fire? 

Moore:  1820. Here we were in 2008, when he did that. That’s possible. Fire can hang around. If a house has a fire, and it’s rebuilt, you can still walk in and get that smell. I do remember that. He did let me keep a brick. [laughs] I have that. 

We found the corners of the house, but still didn’t quite give us the shape of the house, because we believe a lot of materials that Bonaparte needed to create the stables into a house, he might have pulled out. 

It’s very possible he took some foundation stones to make whatever. There were other houses on the property, and he had his tunnels to go into, his basements for his wine cellar. 

Ziobro:  You also did some experiential education out at Fort Monmouth, right? 

Moore:  Yeah. 

Ziobro:  Tell us about that. 

Moore:  That was with you, Melissa, and Chrissie. I was doing a letter project in which I would be transcribing these letters from a personal collection that came in. 

It’s about a woman. I believe her name was Amelia. At this point I don’t remember her last name. She lived in Long Branch, and she communicated a lot with the soldiers at Fort Monmouth during World War I. 

Sometimes she would meet up with them, and they would go take a walk along the beach. She would just write to them, or they would write back to her, saying how sweet it was to meet her, and all this and that. 

Sometimes they would actually, if they were shipped off to Europe, they would send her tokens back from Europe. I remember there was a handkerchief in one, with some of the small flags that were of the fighting allies. 

I transcribed those, also scanning them into a database for Fort Monmouth. 

Ziobro:  These were from, did you say the World War I era? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. 

Ziobro:  Let me ask you. Did you get credit for that? 

Moore:  No. 

Ziobro:  You did not get credit for that. It was just for the experience? 

Moore:  Yes. 

Ziobro:  What would be your advice to current students about experiential education and internships? 

Moore:  Do it! Not only I believe it’s a requirement for just graduating here, but it lets you know if that’s what you really want to do. 

It gives you ideas maybe, but also it’s just good experience. It gets you started on your résumé, sometimes earlier than what the rest of  if you want to call it competition  the other graduates who will be coming out of all their schools around the country, with a similar degree  or the same degree  as you. 

You might have a leg up on them just by having this experience. 

Also, you’re learning how to be in the workforce. If you do well  if you do your job well and you act well  solely just being in the office or in the field, you have references right there. Sometimes it might lead into a job right there. Maybe it doesn’t. At least you have people who can back up your skills, vouch for you that way, and get you into where you want to be when you graduate. 

Definitely, like I say, gives you the skills and also just lets you know. It either confirms or it might tell you otherwise that this is something you might want to do or not want to do. Get your feet wet. 

Ziobro:  Let me say, for the record, that in addition to teaching as an adjunct at Brookdale and at Monmouth, Suzanne has, for many years, worked as a park ranger out at Sandy Hook. Did you begin your affiliation with Sandy Hook while you were a graduate student? 

Moore:  No. I would go out there because I had friends who were seasonals out there, and we’d go on the tours. Initially, it was so overwhelming. You go to Battery Potter, for example, which is a gunning placement out there, and it was overwhelming to hear all this material that they would tell you on a tour. 

At first, I wasn’t really all that interested in it, and then I’m starting to think, “What am I going to do?” I didn’t, at this point, have a job, and it was January of 2010 already. I’m already out of grad school for a few months, and still trying to apply to different jobs, and nothing seems to be biting. 

In January of 2010, I finally said, “OK. I’m going to volunteer at the Hook. At least there’s history there. I can learn something.” They started me off, initially, in History House which is a lieutenants’ quarters, there, on Officer’s Row that is a living history museum. Eventually, I would move over to the lighthouse. 

I did get another job, at this point, but it was nothing related to my major or anything. It was just something to get a paycheck. That was January of 2010, so I would work on and off. Sometimes I would stay away in the summers because they still had that one draw bridge that would back up traffic like no other. 

Over time, I would start to slowly learn other things. I would learn History House, enjoy History House’s Christmas parties that they used to have. It was funny. A couple of us would actually bake in the kitchen at History House. Bake cookies in the winter time, and have that chocolate chip smell going through the whole house. That was what was starting to make it fun. 

I would, eventually, learn the lighthouse, and then they started having these volunteer trainings where you start to learn other volunteers, and working with the seasonals, and eventually, started developing a good rapport with the park historian, Tom Hoffman. 

Then, it was the summer. What summer? Was it 2012? The supervisor of interpretation, we had a party for one of the seasonals who was leaving earlier in the summer, because he went back down to Tennessee to teach down there. I remember the supervisor saying, “What are you doing next summer?” She was asking me that. 

I said, “Well, I’ve got two trips planned. I’m going to Russia with Monmouth University. Then, my friend from Belgium is coming over. We’re going to go out west to Arizona and Nevada. She was like, “Oh,” At first, I was like, “Why is she asking me this?” I thought it was just pleasant conversation. 

Over that winter to summer, now mind you, we had hurricane Sandy come through, which really hurt the Sandy Hook Peninsula really badly. They reopened it in time for 2013. Throughout that whole summer, I was still volunteering. 

It was just something with her saying that to me, was like, “Why was she saying this to me? Why was she saying that to me?” I was paying more attention to what was going on out there and different things. 

Finally, I said to the park historian, Tom Hoffman, I said, “How hard is it to get a job in the park service, even as a seasonal?” He was like, “Very difficult. It’s a lot of competition.” He’s like, “You probably would never get a job here. You’d probably have to go elsewhere, get experience, come back.” 

I didn’t really want to go elsewhere. I’m still in that commuter mindset. He’s like, “Go talk to Jen. Just mention it to her.” 

Ziobro:  This is Jen Cox? 

Moore:  Yes. She’s the supervisor out there. I’m like, “All right.” I emailed her and just said, “Just so you know, I’m interested in possibly being seasonal park ranger next year here at Sandy Hook.” She answered back, “Oh, OK. Well, just so you know, you have to apply on USAJOBS.gov.” “OK.” 

I met up with her in February and she was like, “Let’s go take a walk.” We walked back to her office. She was asking me, “You want to be a park ranger? I thought you wanted to be a teacher.” I’m like, “But, isn’t this kind of like teaching, except the classroom is the outdoors, the lighthouse, the history house, the gun batteries.” She’s like, “OK. I see what you mean.” 

She goes, “You do realize that it’s more than just giving tours. It’s canoeing, it’s doing natural stuff, seining, Crustacean of the Day, things like that.” I’m like, “OK. Do you train how to canoe, because I’ve never even sat in one?” 

“Yeah, we do train.” “OK. You train on everything else?” “Yeah.” “OK.” 

We had a good conversation. She’s like, “All right, just keep an eye out for it.” Finally, it comes in April. Everyone was like, “Why is it so late this year?” I don’t know, weird fluke on that. 

Anyway, I applied. The only thing you have to do is when you apply, you have to be referred. If you don’t get referred, your name doesn’t go to someone like Jen. Luckily though, I got referred. She called me and she hired me on the spot. Starting June 1st through September 30th of 2014, I was park ranger, out there, of Interpretation. 

I did last year from May 3rd to September 30th. Now, this year, starting May 1st, and to be ended on September 30th. 

Ziobro:  What advice would you have for job seekers, those who are just getting out of Monmouth and entering the job market? 

Moore:  Apply. Apply. Apply. Read online too, because there’s some good blogs out there. There’s one that I follow about how to write a good cover letter. Your résumé is going to look very standard. It will tell certain job duties, your accomplishments, whatnot for all what you’d done so far. The cover letter lets your personality come out a little bit. 

Try not to make it so rigid like, “I’m applying to your job. Here’s what I can do.” Your résumé already tells you what you can do. Maybe put something in there that your résumé doesn’t necessarily say. Just make sure you always have that cover letter attached. Follow all instructions on the application. 

Try to keep up on what is appropriate and not appropriate to do. Don’t hound the supervisors. They will call you if they want you to interview. 

Ziobro:  When you left Monmouth with your beautiful new master’s degree, what were your career plans at that moment? 

Moore:  Wasn’t 100 percent sure at the moment. You’ve got parents at home who think you are going to be the college professor, and while I am that now as an adjunct and I do enjoy it, it’s almost like you are meeting that resistance, “Is this what I’m going to be?” It hasn’t happened yet. 

God gave me a chance, but then when I got into the whole thing with the park which is still a couple of years later, now I’m saying that maybe that’s fully what I want to do versus I can still teach on the side. 

I can still work a 9:00 to 5:00 job, and even if I’m in California, I can go to a local community college I say, and teach in night class once or twice a week. 

Ziobro:  Do you feel that you had adequate support from Monmouth in launching your career search? Did you seek help? Was it available or did you not see Monmouth as having a responsibility to help you with that? 

Moore:  There was one department, not history department or anything like that, but there was some other department in the school itself, in Monmouth that I felt drop the ball when I would ask for help. They kept telling me I was doing everything right, but that yet why was I not getting the calls for even interviews? 

Or in they were saying, “Oh you are doing everything right, so we don’t know what the problem is.” 

Also, before teaching jobs, I was advised to go look in a certain local newspaper, and when you go and look at that local newspaper, these education jobs were for school bus drivers. That was the one part I was not happy with, and I hate to say that about Monmouth but… 

Ziobro:  No, I mean, that’s the point. We can only grow and get better if we learn where we are falling short in the past. 

Moore:  I was not too happy with that, but there’s other people like Chrissie for example, when she was doing the work at Fort Monmouth, she really send jobs ideas over. I would look at those and she would send tips. She stopped doing that after a while and I was like, “Why are you stop doing this?” 

Ziobro:  She did when we had so many interns at Fort Monmouth for a while that she started doing that kind of intern digest in sending out jobs and the advices. It goes to show how important your network is. Whether it’s your former professors, or other alumni, or your fellow students, to have that network is important. 

Moore:  Maybe if the department here took that page out of Chrissie’s book that probably would help a lot. 

Ziobro:  If you could go back in time and do anything differently during your time at Monmouth, what would it be? 

Moore:  Study abroad. 

Ziobro:  You had a ready answer. 

Moore:  [laughs] Yes, because I’ve been saying it now for years. I wish I had done that. 

Ziobro:  Why? 

Moore:  Because I found out after graduating with both degrees and went to Europe for the first time and I’m like, “Why didn’t I do this?” I’ve been to Europe five times since and I’ve seen nine different countries. I’ve actually traveled on doctor Pearson’s trips to Finland, Ukraine, Russia, and I was just like, “Why didn’t I do this when I was…?” 

Looking back, there was one student, I think his first name was Bob, I have a vague idea what his last name was but I don’t want to say because I know I’ll probably end up stumbling over it, but if you go back in spring of ’06 throughout like all the outlooks there, Danhard, was his last name that I think about, he studied a one sem in England for the semester, and he went all over the place. 

I knew him from orientation but I was following his stories. He went to Egypt. He went all over this place. He has some crazy stories to tell but he went all over the place every weekend when he didn’t have school. I don’t know how he got his work done, but he went all over the place. I was like, “Damn.” 

When I go to Europe on my own, I’m like, “I should have done this.” I know someone who went to the University down in Sydney Australia, she hasn’t come back yet. She moved down there. She loved it so much. She probably comes back home once in a while. 

I’m friends with her on Facebook still, but she only comes home once in a while to see the family, but then she goes right back to Australia. I don’t know, though, I would not say necessarily I would move to Europe but I wish I had done that. 

Ziobro:  Tell me about the three trips you’ve been on with Doctor Pearson. I take that they’ve all been good experiences as you keep going back? 

Moore:  I went with him twice in 2011, 2013. 2011, I had just come home from my trip from another grad student. She was in charge of a trip through Boning high school. She was a Boning high school teacher, and she took a few of her students to Germany and Czech Republic. She needed few people to go along on the trip to make the trip worth going. I was like, “I’ll go.” 

I was not even home a month and the Monmouth University magazine comes in, and also there’s this advertisement in there and Dr. Pearson’s trip to Russia. I do remember him advertising a trip around 2007, but I’m thinking to myself, Ukraine, Russia is way too far. I don’t know how I will survive, so I just think of post graduation jobs that dominated my mind most of the time. 

I’ve been to Europe twice at this point and here it is staying right there Finland, Ukraine, Russia. I’m just like I want to see, certain sights I want this. At this point I was trying to see all the different landmarks. Like Eiffel towers, I saw it. Big Ben, I saw it. Brandenburg Gate, I saw it. Saint Basil, I got to go see that. 

I email them. He gave me some details, and I was the first person who put the deposit down. 

Ziobro:  Is it usually a mix of students, alumni, and friends? 

Moore:  Yeah. Sometimes the students might come along for the sake of going along, sometimes they will do an independent study with him. I was going along because I want to see everything. I was a little apprehensive going over there not knowing the language at all, especially, when it is in Cyrillic and mostly stay along with the group. 

One time there was my roommate and I, my roommate was a student here at the time, and we did break away from the group one afternoon and went to Red Square because we had to see Saint Basil’s. You do little steps like that trying to get away from the group. Dr. Pearson knew we were doing that. It was just trying to get away from it, just to see certain things that maybe weren’t necessarily on the itinerary. 

We did excursions, we went to the circus, we went to see the ballet Swan Lake in Saint Petersburg. What else did we see? Oh, there was a folk song and dance show that we went to and that was fun. 

When we came back, we did a reunion in the Fall at one of the participant’s house. He started talking about going again in ’13, and I’m like, “There are some things I missed, such as going in to Lenin’s tomb.” It was closed that year. They were possibly working on the body and working on the mausoleum. 

The next time I went it was I think a slightly smaller group, more students that time than there were the first time. I was just determined. I wanted to see Lenin. I want to not go on all the night excursions because he was going to mostly do the same ones again. 

I’m like, “I’ve already seen that.” Now I want to go out and see things because we go during the white nights which is when the sun doesn’t set until 10 or 11 o’clock at night, especially up in Saint Petersburg. 

We just wanted to see different things. He even noted to me later on, he’s like, “You were really kind of like the group leader at some points.” When he was busy taking people to the different excursions, some people were noticing I wasn’t paying for the extra excursions because I’m like, “Well, I’ve already seen the circus, I’ve already seen the ballet although they went to “Romeo and Juliet” this time.” 

I’m like, “That’s not even Russian.” I could see that at home if I want to. I would rather go to England or Italy to see those. 

Then they went to an opera, and I’m like, “Is it a Russian opera? No? All right, I can see it wherever. I can go back home and see it in Lincoln Center if I really want to see an opera.” A few people started hanging back and not going on these excursions because they wanted to see what I was going to be up to. 

Now granted a couple of us bypassed the opera and we ended up finding a shopping mall in Saint Petersburg and went bowling. [laughs] 

There was one night where one of the…he was a student. Or did he just graduate at the time? I think he had just graduated. This was like his trip, his graduation present. The white nights in Saint Petersburg, the sun sets but it’s always twilight. You know how the sun is setting now around eight o’clock but yet you can still see outside until 8:15? 

It’s like that but all night long because the sun is just below the horizon and as Earth is spinning it’s just going to come back up in the East two hours later. 

At two o’clock in the morning we walked out of our hotel, walked all the way down to the river, that’s a good mile or so. Walked down to the river and then, at the river, all the bridges are up. All the street lights on the bridges are on and the bridges open up because it’s when all the shipping traffic works during the night coming in and out of the main port of Saint Petersburg. 

If you look to the West, the sun was still shining even though it had already set. If you look to the East it was dark and to us, now, right now in August that’s our eight o’clock hour how it is. But this was at two o’clock in the morning. Two hours later the sun is coming up at four o’clock in the morning and you wonder how these people live. That was interesting to see. 

Granted that I paid for it the next day because I fell asleep on the bus and didn’t even know we had reached our destination. The one other funny story was I was with our bowling coach. She went on that trip. 

Ziobro:  The Monmouth bowling team? 

Moore:  Yes. There was another alum that came along. We were walking around. We had lunch at Burger King. We were walking around and I wanted to see that Aurora battle ship. I don’t know what happened because obviously with the language disconnect there. 

There were people on line paying this woman to get on the battleship. We hopped on line and she looked at us and in broken English she said, “You two students, three rubles.” Or however much it was. We’re looking and we’re like, “What?” She’s like, “Three rubles, you two are students.” So we’re like, “OK.” 

We gave her the three, and she let us on board, and she looked at him and goes, “10 rubles.” [laughs] Because to her in her mind he didn’t look like a student. He comes back saying, “What was she saying to you guys?” We’re like, “Oh, she charged us the student rate.” He goes, “What?” Or something. 

But yet, she wasn’t allowing anybody else behind us. We think we might have accidentally jumped on a line that was for certain tour only. [laughs] 

Ziobro:  That’s funny. Do you see additional trips with Dr. Pearson in your future? 

Moore:  I wanted to go on this past one that he offered because he was going to Poland. He took Ukraine out because six months after we came back home the last time was when that whole rising in the streets. The Kiev did not look like the Kiev we had seen just six months prior. 

I had wanted to go because he was suggesting different things. I had read the Gorky Park series, that’s a good nonfiction book by the way to get some insight on the Soviet Union. 

I was at the park and to ask for one day off at the park because we were seasonals. It’s a summer job. One day is OK. But to ask for two weeks? Why are you even working? 

What I did was I wrote a letter in Russian, which he helped me write, to the tour guide because he always hires the same tour guide every time. I just let her know, “Hey, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it. I remember your tours.” Just something like that. I wrote it in Russian and put it on a note card that was from Sandy Hook. 

Ziobro:  That’s impressive. Are you involved in any alumni activities? 

Moore:  No. Usually I just get that card from the alumni committee, or I guess association where they want you to vote. Sometimes if I think of it I read their bios and maybe pick somebody. But really, no. 

The only connection I usually come back for besides teaching class was with Pearson’s trips. I also go to his…it used to be called the Provost Film Series, now known as the World Cinema Series. Maybe I’ve missed one or two movies within the last few years. 

Ziobro:  Tell us a little about the cinema series. Why do you enjoy it so much? 

Moore:  In my personal life I’ve cut out going to the movie theater. Mainly because I don’t believe in spending $10 to see a movie that is only going to come out on DVD later and I can get at my public library for free. Plus it’s a way for me to save money so I can go back to Europe. 

He offers this where you can come in, see a movie for free, and it’s not your typical Hollywood movie with trying to find a happy ending all the time. This is something that shows you the world. Sometimes he’ll pick not a documentary, but based on a natural event such as the “Mamba” movie, I show that in my classes now. 

It just gives you new perspectives. It gives you back country perspectives on an event. Maybe it’s just one director, but he’s done so many different themes. I’ve forgotten all the ones that I’ve seen. He’s done women in the Middle East. He did one on World War II because it was the 70th anniversary. Another one was different things in Africa. 

I don’t even know what he’s planning on for this year. But usually he does one in November and the other four are done in the Spring semester once a month. 

Ziobro:  These are in Pollak, right? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. Again, another change, they redid it. 

Ziobro:  Recently? 

Moore:  Yeah. 

Ziobro:  Do you keep in touch with any of your professors or students that you were in class with? 

Moore:  Professors, yes. I’m on Facebook. That was something that developed when I was in college. It used to be just for college students but now it’s expanded. I’m friends with Dr. Veit on there. He’s a professor but he was not a professor for me because he was still in his own graduate studies. 

Adam Heinrich I’m friends with him. I knew him from field’s schools. Student slash now colleague Sean Cue. I’m trying to think of who else. I have to probably get out my phone and start…well you. 

Ziobro:  [laughs] It’s good to keep in touch with some people. Chrissie? 

Moore:  Yes. You’re the number one that I’m friends with on Facebook and keep in touch with. Then just other classmates. Sometimes we talk, sometimes you might just send that one Facebook…Facebook reminds you, so you send that happy birthday and that might be the only communication. Other times I keep in touch with some people I know. 

Another person I’m friends with, she’s actually going to have a baby soon, but she’s an alum of the psychology department here. She’s now a fellow professor at some of the community colleges as well. She actually taught here last year as well. I keep in touch with her. 

Ziobro:  So you do maintain some contact with your Monmouth folks. What advice would you give to people just starting out at Monmouth? It’s the class of 2020, if you can believe that. What advice would you give to the class of 2020? 

Moore:  Make the most of your college experience. Yes, probably your most important job is to keep on top of your studies. But you got to find time to have some fun, too. 

If you don’t work on any stress related things you will drive yourself crazy especially if you were like me, who had to get the A. It drove my parents insane when I didn’t get an A. [laughs] By then I would be the one freaking out and they would be the ones trying to calm me down. 

Just have some fun, go out with some friends. Take advantage of some of the activities that the student activities board would have to do. Join clubs. Another activity I remember they used to do was movies out on the lawn. Just enjoy yourself while you’re here because this is the last step before true adulthood. 

Some people might already be in the real world because they might have to work a full time job. Just find time for you. Enjoy it. Whether it be four years or five years, just enjoy the time you have here in college because these are memories you’re going to look back on. 

Ziobro:  Well that brings me to the end of my prepared questions. Are there any other Monmouth memories that you would like to share? 

Moore:  I don’t know. Just trying to think. I just remember always…do they still play the Plangere bells? I remember hearing the chimes there, and knowing the lyrics to the school songs, and also our fight song. 

Ziobro:  I’m debating making my freshman seminar students learn the songs and sing them in class. 

Moore:  We had to learn it during orientation. Because I was an orientation leader for two years and then an orientation team leader in my final year which means I was one of five who would train the new orientation leaders. That was something I also had done. 

If you’re a new person here to the school, that’s something to look into. It was done differently now, than it was then. They do orientation, and a lot of other things during the summer. Where the students actually, I think, stay over whereas orientation was done on that Labor Day weekend. 

You had three days of orientation with different events, and such like that. That was something interesting to do. I remember the one student who had done that movie, “Shadows of Shadow Lawn.” 

Ziobro:  I was going to ask you about that. Tell us a little bit about it. 

Moore:  I remember seeing it, and I actually bought a copy. I don’t know if they still sell it, but they should. It was all about the paranormal stuff that can happen around campus. The things like the ghost scene. He’s the one who actually mentioned that, I didn’t realize it was the disappearing tombstones of the dogs. 

I remember that coming out. The other thing I remember too…I was disappointed that Monmouth did this with the book store. When I was in school, you had to go and pick out your own books. You had to be able to read your schedule, including the course code and the section number, and be able to find your own books. 

Now when you go in, you give your schedule to somebody, and they pull it off the shelves for you. I think. That’s how it looked like, anyway. The bookstore used to be downstairs in the student center. What else? I forget why, but I’ve been in the new president’s house. 

He had some form of reception. It might have been for presidents clubs, or something like that. I remember that, so I saw the first floor of that. I remember graduations. The one…I forget who…It was an actor, I think. No. Was it an actor or a news…? It was a famous person. I don’t even remember who it was. 

It’s ’07, so if you can add that, [inaudible 84:48]. 

Ziobro:  Yeah. I can crossreference. Where were your graduations? Did you go to both ceremonies? 

Moore:  Mmhmm. That was during the PNC time. The second time…I got my diploma in September ’09, but I still wanted to walk for my masters. That was the graduation with Chris Christie. 

Ziobro:  What do you recall about that? I’ve heard some stories about that. 

Moore:  I recall that there were a couple of protesters in the student crowd. Not even in the parent crowd, but in the student crowd, where they were yelling at him a little bit. 

Ziobro:  Do you recall what they were protesting? 

Moore:  Right around that time it was all about the teachers and their pay in 10 years, such like that. I remember him being up there. I remember him talking. What he said, I don’t really…I’m sure it’s the same sort of, this is your time now. Go out into the world and make a difference, thing. 

Trying to think if there is anything else that I can recall. Yeah. The other thing is, they took out this bridge. That’s the way to get to class in Howard, if your company is [inaudible 86:03] in the cold walking through there. I spent a lot of time actually in hangout spots with the Versaillestype gardens there. Hung out there a lot. 

Ziobro:  You’ve certainly given us a lot to go on. 

Moore:  [laughs] That’s with a history major, everything starts coming back. 

Ziobro:  You remember. That’s why I always tell people when we do these interviews, “You go off track. There is no track.” We’re freewheeling, we are offroading, whatever you think of. Free range of thoughts. 

Moore:  I’ll let you know if…I’ll probably go home in the car and be like… 

Ziobro:  I should have told that story. This was very good. Thank you so much, Suzanne. 

Moore:  You’re welcome