Final Fieldnotes on the interview with Mr. and Mrs Ivory Moore.

My trip to Mr. and Mrs. Ivory Moore's house is the most exciting so far. As I stated in my earlier field notes on them, I got there at about 3pm on Saturday April 3rd 2010.as we agreed on the phone. I called them at about 12pm that same day to make sure I wasn’t interrupting anything. Mrs. Picked up my call and asked me to come over that they were ready for me. I had to go there with my brother to help cover the video aspect while I conduct the interview. When we got to the door, I knocked and we walked in and met husband and wife in the same position that I met them a day earlier. They were so happy that I was there.

Mr. Moore said he was ready for me and I really saw in his eyes that he was pleased to have me in their house. After we had sat down for about 5-10 minutes discussing general things, I was asked to start. I first of brought out the signature form and read it out loud and clear to him. When I was done, he accepted that he was okay with the terms and conditions of the form. I gave him the form after all, and he signed it before we started. We got the camera ready and I began by asking Mr. Moore if he attended graduate school and his experience as at that time. As soon as he began narrating his story, the house phone rang which Mrs. Moore picked up and began to talk with the person on the other side. Her voice was so loud that at the point, I wasn’t hearing what Mr. Moor was telling me. Mrs. Moore was actually having fun with whosoever she was having the conversation with.

So what I did was to ask my brother to pause the camera and I apologized to Mr. Moore that we have to wait for his wife to finish her conversation before we can begin. I was happy he accepted and told his wife that we were waiting for her to finish before we can start all over again. While, she was on the phone, I played back the video and discovered that her voice on the phone overshadowed that of her husband. So finally, I deleted the video and waited patiently for her to finish.

After 15-20 minutes, she said goodbye to the lady on the other side and apologized to us. “You see, I don’t know why she should go to the grocery store without a car. That was crazy “. She told us looking from one face to another laughing.

Anyway, we started again, and this time, there were no more interruptions except that from time to time, she reminded her husband whatever he forgot. Mr. Moore told me he started taking graduate school classes in 1947. He gave me details of the four colleges he took classes in Oklahoma state. He also told me he was not the only black person in his class but that he had other black students too. The only thing was that all his teachers were whites because then, there were a few well educated blacks who could teach in colleges.

His wife narrated her own part of part of graduate school experience. She told me that she has MBA and later worked in TRIO as a math tutor for so many years.
My experience with the Moore’s was a tremendous one, and I am very grateful to them for having me in their home. We left there at exactly 5.30pm back to the campus.