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DK: Today is December 10, 2020 and this begins an oral history interview. My name is Donald Koger and I am located in Piscataway, New Jersey. Please introduce yourself and say where you are.
Z: Sure. I am Miss Z. and I am located in Middlesex, New Jersey.
DK: The purpose of this interview is for an archive as part of a class project that will be made publicly available online. With your consent, the contents of this interview will be made public as part of my project as well as passed along to the Rutgers University libraries where they may also be publicly accessed. Do I have your consent?
Z: Yes, you have my consent.
DK: Thinking back, what are some of the first things that you remember from when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit?
Z: I will be honest, and Chris, my fiancé, will probably tell you the same thing. I didn’t think it was as big as it was going to be. I was still wanting to go out even though I was working from home, and still wanted to do all these things. Even now, there’s bits and times where I’ll think, “Oh, let’s go out and eat breakfast,” and Chris is like, “No, we can’t do that. We have to stay home.” It was just a little bit of a shock, trying to wrap my own head around: “I can’t go out and do things.” I couldn’t go and visit with my parents; I couldn’t go and visit with friends. It was just very very lonely and boring, to say the least, being stuck in the same four walls all day.
DK: When did you first hear about COVID-19?
Z: I remember some people saying some things about it, but I don’t watch the news all that often. Everything I got was hearsay from other people. The first really big sign, that I knew something was going on, I was at work at one of my jobs and I received a text message from the school I work at, saying that all of our after-school activities, all concerts, all musical performances were going to be canceled and everybody is going to be having a half day, the following day, in order for teachers to change to possibly teaching fully virtually. Then, when I got the call on Saturday night, saying you are now all fully virtual, no one’s allowed in the school building. It was kind of like, “Holy shit, this is craziness.”
Also, when I was working at my other job, at the food store, there was lines and lines of people getting hundreds and hundreds of dollars-worth of food and taking all the toilet paper, milk, all the snacks, and everything like that.
DK: In March, you were working multiple jobs?
Z: Yes. My main job is a school-teacher at a school in Paterson, New Jersey. I also teach private lessons in a music school near where I live. At that point in time, I was also working as a cashier in a supermarket for a couple months.
DK: So you were busy?
Z: Yes! Yes, trying to save money for that wedding that got postponed.
DK: You had a wedding postponed because of this?
Z: Mhmm.
DK: A lot of changes.
Z: Yes.
DK: What has that been like? Changing the date? I’m not married, so I have no idea what goes into a wedding. How was that?
Z: I ended up ordering my dress in a weird way. I went into the store, I tried on a whole bunch of dresses. This was also, the Sunday before everything was going on. Went, tried on the dress, and a couple weeks later, I called the store and they said, “We are not letting anyone in, but we can do a phone order.” So, I ordered an eleven-hundred -dollar dress on the phone. That ended up coming in about three weeks after we decided to move the wedding date. For the most part, we already had most of our stuff. We had our centerpieces. One of the things that we had to do but we couldn’t do because everything was closed was we couldn’t get the guys’ suits, we couldn’t get the girls’ dresses or anything like that. All the little stuff we couldn’t do.
DK: What happened with work once everything hit?
Z: Once everything hit, we ended up going fully virtual. My school thought that it was only going to be for about two weeks. We put a plan in place for two weeks, and then two weeks turned into four weeks. Four weeks turned into, “We’ll reevaluate after Spring Break.” Then, they decided to close us for the rest of the year. For the first two weeks, they wanted us to do reviews on stuff. The homeroom teachers were doing reviews from the beginning of the school. I was just doing, as a music teacher, fun things for them to do. Then, they started wanting the homeroom teachers to actually teach some of the curriculum. Being a special, they didn’t mandate us to have live-Zoom lessons, just activities because they understand that teaching a ‘special’ is not necessarily core stuff and it’s supposed to be fun. We still had to do something because they had grades for it. We weren’t allowed in the school building, if we needed to get something, we realistically needed to talk to our admin team. After the first two weeks, they said, “If you need to get something, contact admin and then go in.” I’ll be honest, I stayed home. I left the building on March 13 and I did not return to the building until I had to pack up my stuff in June. We weren’t allowed to teach in the building, no kids were allowed in the building, all the secretaries were working from home. The nurse was working from home. It was very interesting.
DK: Did you end up doing any live instruction?
Z: During that time, the specialist team decided what the kids needed was some interaction with people outside of their homes. We did a fun Zoom with each of the grades. For one day, we had all of kindergarten, one day we had all of first grade. So that way they could interact with each other in a supervised setting and have some fun instead of just being bored at home. I didn’t really start doing any teaching music from a computer until September. I did have Zoom calls with some of the kids, if they needed extra help, or they didn’t understand something. I said, “Okay, come join my Zoom, I’ll talk you through the assignment.”
DK: How was that?
Z: It was interesting. The days we had all of the kids, it was very loud. We couldn’t mute it because we had to hear and supervise them. It was great seeing the kids. I didn’t realize, as much as some of them drove me crazy as a teacher, and I’m sure you know this from you driving your own teachers crazy a little bit, I missed them. Them coming on and saying, “Miss Z., we miss you. We miss you.” I still miss it now. I have students I never go to say goodbye to when they graduated Third Grade because they went off to a new building. There’s still some kids, who I never got to say goodbye, so it kind of breaks my heart a little bit that I’m never going to see them again.
DK: You were also doing private lessons before the pandemic?
Z: Yes.
DK: Did you do any of that, virtually?
Z: Once March hit, they all switched over to Skype. Teaching private instrumental lessons through Skype is very interesting because you can’t go and physically fix their fingering. You can’t play with them, the sound’s not going to line up for duets. You can’t get them used to performing with another person. It’s getting better. I do have some students who have excelled being at home because all they can do is practice. I have some students who have gone on the downside with the private lessons because they are at home and not practicing. They’re watching TV and playing video games instead.
DK: What happened with your job at the grocery job?
Z: The week after my school closed, that one first week, I actually took off from the supermarket because that was supposed to be my tech week for my students’ musical. After my tech week, or the first week of quarantine, I called them and said, “I can’t come back in anymore.” Chris didn’t want me to come in because he’s still going to work, he’s immunocompromised, and the food store is one of those places where I could catch something easier compared to if I just stay at home. After that, I went on leave, and then when things didn’t change in June, I ended up giving them my resignation because I didn’t want them to hold a spot for me if I wasn’t going to come back in the summer. I ended up, when summer hit, I went and worked for my parents’ company, managing and working in one of their stores. At any point in time, there’s no more than four people in that store. It’s not that crowded, so I wouldn’t have caught anything working there.
DK: It sounds like everybody would behave there more than we’ve seen at the grocery stores.
Z: And there is more distance. It’s a larger store so I could distance myself easier, compared to being behind a checkout counter.
DK: Thinking about working remotely, did you have any issues creating a space in your home from which to work?
Z: You’re looking at it. I take over a spot in my kitchen from 7:30 in the morning until about 3:00 or 3:45 when I can’t sit in this area anymore. That’s it. The only reason I picked this spot, even though I’m in my kitchen, I have knives in the background, I have my back door, it’s the only place where I have a light that’s right over my head. So, the kids can see me and I’m angling it so I don’t have liquor in the background, or photos of me and Chris in the background that might be distracting to the students.
DK: Have you had any issues with getting physical equipment?
Z: My school actually gives all the teachers laptops. So, I’ve had a laptop with my school since I started, five years ago with them. We already had a table in place, because this is where Chris does his painting and sometimes cooking on it. The only thing that I had to get that might have been a little bit of an issue getting was, some school supplies I needed at the beginning of the this year. Like masks and stuff like that. For working from home, not really, because I had all that stuff here.
DK: Did you already have a home internet connection? How has your internet been?
Z: We already had a home internet connection. When we moved in, about six years ago, we decided we would get the fastest speed internet that we could. Knock on wood, I’ve only had one main issue with my internet. That was two weeks ago, where it just, all of the sudden, crapped out and we had to call Optimum to come out to fix it. I was lucky enough that my school was like, “Okay, that’s fine, you don’t have to do live lessons that morning, just keep us up to date.” So, I put an assignment up and I taught in the afternoon.
DK: It sounds like you were pretty-well supported by the school.
Z: Yes. In September, my school started a hybrid program where kids staying fully virtual and I had kids in person. The kids in person, it was okay. The kids virtual it was okay. But then, combining the two together, I didn’t know who to focus more on. Sometime after Halloween, we had an outbreak on the campus, we had to close and a whole bunch of people had to quarantine for two weeks. After those two weeks, my school, higher up than my principal, wanted to have all the teachers come back and all the teachers would teach from the building but the kids would stay home. My campus put up a fight about it, and we don’t know if it was because we put a fight up about it, about going back even though we got exposed, or because so many people still had to quarantine; they let the teachers stay home. After Thanksgiving until January, I want to say January 11, all teachers and all students are fully remote. They’re going to re-evaluate after the holidays.
DK: When it first hit, you mentioned that you were working at a grocery store and that there were people buying a lot of certain items. Either working there, or in your personal buying, did you notice any things going out of stock? Were any things harder to get than others?
Z: Yes. I noticed, and this was the Thursday, after I worked in the supermarket. I went to do my own food shopping, there was no toilet paper, no paper towels. There were hardly any tissues, I don’t remember if there were any napkins, but that was the one main thing that I saw that was just crazy-insane, how there was none left. Same thing with cleaning supplies. I understand the cleaning supplies, I understand the paper towels, I STILL don’t get the toilet paper. [laughter[. Food-wise, not that I can think of. I think a lot of people were getting soup, non perishable stuff, stuff for kids snacks. There were people who were getting a lot of meat, but I think that there was a sale on meat so they were picking up the meat because there was a sale, not necessarily because there was a quarantine about to happen.
DK: Did your buying habits change at all?
Z: I will be the first one to admit, I never, I didn’t pick up two paper towels in one thing. But I do have an entire, unopened thing of paper towels and an unopened thing of toilet paper, extra in my closet. Now, I just make sure we always have an unopen thing of paper towels and unopened thing of toilet paper. Once I see that I’m in that, I’ll get another one. It’s one of those, just in case, I don’t want to run out of that but I don’t want to overstock it too. Trying to get a lot of crackers and stuff, non-perishable stuff for snacks and everything or lunch. I was trying to avoid getting a lot of frozen foods, although I jam-packed my freezer, not realizing it. Then, I was going food shopping maybe every two weeks in March. I’d go food shopping, I’d do a huge haul and then I’d have no room and no idea what do eat because I never plan out the food I want to eat for lunch or what we should have for dinner.
DK: Did your eating habits change?
Z: I have a bad habit sometimes, if I’m busy and just working and working, I won’t eat. For example, yesterday, I had cereal for breakfast and I realized at 3:30 when I was leaving to go to teach my lessons, I didn’t eat lunch. The only thing I can say is, that changed, where I’ll either not eat or I’ll just snack all day. That’s just normal for me. If I’m teaching, or if I was teaching in the school, it would be the same thing. Okay, I’m hungry, I have twenty minutes, lets scarf down a yogurt. But now I don’t want my lunch.
DK: Did you make bread?
Z: No. [laughter]. I didn’t make bread. I didn’t bake in March. I think I started baking some brownies and some muffins in September, but like boxed stuff. But yes, I didn’t make bread [laugher].
DK: We covered quite a bit.
Z: Mhmm.
DK: If you could tak to yourself back in March, or earlier, what would you tell yourself?
Z: Maybe try and spend more time with friends and family that I didn’t think to spend time with. I normally go and see a friend of mine every summer, but with everything going on, I didn’t see them. I also haven’t seen my cousins who are seven and ten, I think, I haven’t seen them since last Christmas. Seeing my mom, like three times since March, it’s kind of hard. But spending time with more family as much as I possibly can, and make sure not to stay up super late and try and get on a regular sleep schedule. I know, right now, I’m having trouble making sure I’m on a consistent sleeping schedule staying home being home and trying to make sure to stay on a sleeping schedule. Don’t freak out as much.
DK: That’s the tough one.
Z: Yes. Don’t freak out as much and don’t get upset with the people around you when you start freaking and you can’t handle your own anxieties. [laughter].
DK: That’s the tough one.
Z: Yes. [laughter].
DK: Thank you very much.
Z: Yes, no problem.
DK: Is there anything else you want to add, or anything else that should be included?
Z: Not that I can think of.
DK: Thank you.
Z: No worries.
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