The Crazy Mad Rush is Over......And Also, What Am I?

The crazy mad rush that started in mid-February has finally come to a close and I have a little bit of time to catch my breath.

I just finished reviewing Philip Gerard's The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina for H-CivWar and the review will hopefully be posted sometime this week. Follow H-CivWar on Twitter and you'll see it when it drops. Without spoiling the review, I'll say that you'll view this book depending upon how you approach it. I'll share the review on my social media (Twitter and Facebook) when it is published and you can read it for yourself.

This past weekend I participated in the annual "Fight for the Backcountry" program at Alamance Battleground State Historic Site near Burlington, NC. This is always a great event and there are always lots of folks I enjoy spending time with. They have an active Friends organization that, together with the site staff, is working to make this site even better. It's just an all-around good time when we do programs there.

Someone asked me a question at the Alamance event that, while I answered quickly, gave me pause to consider all weekend and even into this week. The question was "Are you a reenactor? Do you consider yourself to be a reenactor?" On the surface, it seems like an easy Yes/No question to answer, and in some ways it is, but in other ways it is much more complicated. My quick answer was "No, I do not consider myself a reenactor," and that is true, but again there's nuance to this that most folks who don't do this kind of thing wouldn't understand. They would think that anyone who goes to historic places, dresses in historic clothing, and does historic stuff is a reenactor. But there are so many levels to this for those of us who are either a) engaged in the hobby, b) work in the history field, or c) both, that it isn't always so cut-and-dried. Let me clarify further.....

If I did not work in this field, it is doubtful that I would be engaged in these types of activities. While I was a Junior Historian with our local historical society in Pennsylvania when I was a kid (we dressed in pseudo-historic clothing and gave house tours and did historic crafts) it wasn't until my first ever NC Historic Sites job as a seasonal interpreter at Fort Fisher that I ever even thought about participating in "reenacting." I became a first-person interpreter a few years later at Tryon Palace and that's when I started to get more serious about it because I was doing it every day. Finally, when I got my first full-time sites job at the CSS Neuse, I started "reenacting" more seriously. I put the word "reenacting" in quotation marks and I'll explain why next.

To me (and others) there is a big difference between "reenacting" and living history/costumed interpretation, but that's a whole other blog post. The bottom line is, I do what I do to help educate the public and hopefully teach them something about whatever part of the past I'm working in at the given moment. I do not do what I do to get some kind of "period rush" or for my own personal experience of what it was like "back then" or any kind of personal gratification. I feel safe in saying that most of the fine fellows in my group feel the same way. Over the past 20 years I've done a lot of things in this hobby. I've camped out in the coldest, hottest, and wettest conditions imaginable. I've visited some spectacular places and taken part in some really great programs. I've been emotionally moved on a few occasions. I've always tried to do things as correctly and properly as possible, but have never obsessed over every minute detail as some folks do (though I appreciate those who do and applaud them for their dedication). But in the end, I still say I am not a reenactor. I am an educator, I am an interpreter, I am a costumed interpreter, I am a demonstrator. I am many things, but in the end it all goes back to the public and what I am teaching or imparting to them.

If I left the world of historic sites/museums tomorrow would I still engage in this hobby? Probably, but selectively. I have many friends in the hobby, some of whom I consider as family. They are like brothers, sisters, cousins to me and I would still want to spend time with them. However, unlike 10-15 years ago when "reenacting" was the only hobby I really had, I now have other hobbies that interest me equally, if not more. As with anything else in life, you keep doing it until it isn't fun or rewarding anymore, then you have to decide whether or not to give it up. I'm nowhere near ready to give it up, but I also know that I am not a "reenactor" by some accounts, and I'm good with that.

My Career as a Historian - Part Eleven

Wow, I can't believe it's been three weeks since I posted something in this series. Getting pretty slack here lately I suppose. Well, here's post #11 and I'm thinking there will be only two or three more after this, which will bring my career up to the present or pretty close to it.

Fall semester 1998 I began earnestly working on getting the thesis together. I was still thinking Ph.D program and started looking at a couple of schools. My doctoral program thoughts were fueled by attending the annual meeting of the Southern Historical Association in both 1997 and 1998 (Atlanta and Birmingham, respectively) and getting a taste of what the professional academic world was all about. I met some excellent historians at those conferences, particularly David Goldfield and James C. Cobb. I was in awe of these men and wanted to be just like them. To that end, I presented papers at a few smaller conferences, particularly the NC Association of Historians and the UNC-Charlotte Graduate History Forum. My presentations at these functions were OK, but not stellar. Still, I connected with some great historians and other graduate students. I looked at Ph.D programs all over the South and some in the mid-Atlantic. Top choices on my list included University of South Carolina, West Virginia University, University of Tennessee, University of Georgia, and Vanderbilt. Not a single application was ever filled out.

My thesis advisor left for maternity leave the spring semester of 1999, leaving me to communicate with her via telephone and email, and mailing thesis chapters to her for review. At this point I was completely jaded, thoughts of a Ph.D had all but vanished, and now I just wanted to get finished and get out. I realized that what I was producing was not Ph.D worthy material. My research methodology had serious holes in it, my writing was good, but not great, and it just wasn't up to par. But, I figured if I could make it good enough to pass I'd be done with it. It was at this point when Otis Graham decided to share a bit of advice with me, albeit too late to do me much good. He knew I was on the brink of burnout and he said he wished he had met me as an undergrad. He would have given me the same advice he gave his own son when he graduated from college. He said, "I told him to get out of school, go out in the world, and become 28." 28? What was he talking about? He explained that his theory was college students should take a break after graduation, live in the real world for a few years, and by the time they were 28 they would know what they really wanted to do with their life and could go back to school and do it. My biggest fear had always been that if I took that break I'd never come back.

Along with the stress of writing and defending the thesis, I was trying to find a job. The search intensified once I realized that a doctoral program was not in my future. I applied for a number of jobs, and awaited call backs and interviews. Meanwhile, the thesis was almost finished and it was time to defend. I ended up having to do a lot of what I'll call remedial research. The first draft was absolutely shredded by my advisor and I had to do a lot of background research that I should have done earlier in order to catch up. The defense played out exactly as I had expected. Otis Graham threw me a couple of "softball" questions that I easily answered and he was satisfied. Alan Watson challenged me, which I was certain he would, but didn't give me anything I couldn't handle. Then it came time for what I knew would be the real test, my advisor Peggy Shaffer. She absolutely grilled me, even more so than I expected. At one point she said something that ruffled Alan Watson's feathers and he cut me off and argued a point with her in the middle of the defense. When it was all said and done I wasn't sure if I was going to successfully defend or not. It was all very uncomfortable. Dr. John Haley, the graduate coordinator at the time, told me it was the roughest thesis defense he'd ever witnessed and commended me on my handling of it. I got the feeling that he was less than pleased with my advisor at that point. Of course, I did successfully defend the thesis, much to my relief. But I knew that it wasn't the best work I could have done, and in fact when I received the bound copies back from the library a friend asked what I thought, and I responded "It's the same old piece of crap that I wrote, just with a hard cover on it."

As for the job search, I turned down an interview with the NC Transportation Museum, a state historic site, to take the position of Executive Director of the Carteret County Historical Society in Morehead City, NC. My first career move was in some ways good, and in other ways not so good. More on that in the next post.

My Career as a Historian - Part Ten

I've recently strayed from adding posts to this series, but I want to get back on track as I figure after this post I will have only two or three more to finish up the series.

The summer of 1998 changed my life in a lot of ways. I had one year left of graduate school, and that would consist of only an internship and writing my thesis. However, I had to find something to do for the summer. The previous summer, my roommate Charlie, his friend Brent, and I had worked for a temp agency. I went there first, looking for something to keep me busy through the summer. My job at the paint store had actually been run through a temp agency, so I was familiar with the process. I went to a different agency when the previous one couldn't find me anything. The new agency set me up with United Carolina Bank (specifically their mortgage division) in Wilmington. UCB had sold their mortgage division to BB&T, and they were in the process of closing down their headquarters in Wilmington, packing up all the files, and sending it all to Greenville, SC. It was a process that would take all summer (and I won't bore you with the details). I was hired first and my supervisor asked if I had any friends that wanted a job, so I pulled in Charlie, and he pulled in Brent. The work was repetitive and somewhat tedious, but very detail oriented. Plus, we were a couple of college guys working in a business that was about to be shut down, so the full-time employees were basically all losing their jobs. However, we brought a breath of fresh air and enthusiasm to that place when they really needed it and it turned out to be a really fun summer.

For the summer of 1998 however, I decided that I needed to try and find something in the history field and get some experience under my belt. I applied for an internship at the Cape Fear Museum in downtown Wilmington, interviewed, but didn't get it. Then I saw an ad for a seasonal position at Fort Fisher State Historic Site. It was called the Mary Holloway Seasonal Interpreter program and was a position designed for college students. I sent in the application and got a call for an interview. I had never even been to Fort Fisher before so I was interested to see what this was all about. I interviewed with Leland Smith, who was the program coordinator and oversaw the seasonal interpreter position. He explained that the job entailed dressing out in a Civil War uniform, giving guided tours and musket demonstrations, and helping out around the gift shop. He offered me the position on the spot and I accepted. Little did I know that this is the position that would launch my career.

As I found out very quickly, a number employees in NC Historic Sites got their start in the Mary Holloway Seasonal Interpreter position (I can think of at least three off the top of my head). I was eager to get started, but I hadn't thought much about the Civil War since I was a kid. I had become more interested in lots of other historical topics and was currently focusing my energies on post-World War II southern industrial development. But, I needed experience and this was going to be it. As soon as I put on the uniform and fired the musket for the first time, I knew this was going to change my mindset. After my training and first time firing a cannon my entire game plan for my life went out the window. Before, I hadn't really been serious about working in the public history field. Sure, I was concentrating in public history, but I still thought I was going to go on for a Ph.D, or at the very least find a job teaching history at a community college. Once I got started at Fort Fisher I loved it, and I could now easily see myself actually working in the public history realm.

Aside from this life changing summer internship, I had also moved into a new apartment. No big deal, right? But this was kind of a big deal. This apartment was much farther away from campus than I had ever lived so there were very few college students in the complex and many young and middle-aged professionals. My roommate, though a college student, was also a Marine Corps officer candidate who went to school and worked 60 hours a week, so his mindset was much different than the typical college kid. Making that move was my first step into the "real world" so to speak. It got me a few steps away from the college campus environment and closer to some of my friends who were no longer in school and were actually working for a living now. That change in mindset was probably very good for me at that point in time.

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of working at Fort Fisher was that it completely ruined my focus on my thesis topic. All of a sudden, the only thing I was interested in was the Civil War, particularly in eastern North Carolina. It was very difficult to stay on task and continue working on a thesis project that I had already started and was bound and determined to finish. I remember clearly having a conversation with my thesis advisor, Dr. Shaffer (see mention in a previous post) where she asked me, point blank, what it was I wanted to get out of my thesis. My response was that I wanted to write something that was good enough and professional enough to get me into a Ph.D program. Now, not only was the Ph.D starting to look like a pipe dream, but getting the thesis completed was looking fairly difficult.

While working at Fort Fisher I began scanning the weekly job postings from the Department of Cultural Resources, thinking that I might try to land a full-time job and finish the thesis while starting on my career. I actually did apply and interview for a job at the President James K. Polk State Historic Site but did not get the job. After the seasonal interpreter position at Fort Fisher had run its course, I decided to stay on staff as a regular temporary employee. Aside from working on the weekends, I continued to travel with Leland and other staff members to other historic sites around the area to help with cannon demonstrations. I felt like I had found a niche and I wanted to run with it and see where it would take me.

My Career as a Historian - Part Nine

My second year of graduate school was used to complete my coursework and take my comprehensive exams. Since I had switched from an American history concentration to a Public history concentration I had a little catching up to do. For the fall semester I took Intro to Public History, a cross-listed grad/undergrad course, with Dr. Otis Graham. The class is exactly what it sounds like, an introduction to all areas of the public history field. What was more fun about this class was Otis himself. He was an old school, New Deal liberal and your typical absent-minded professor. I began working as a research assistant for him this semester. This was not a university-funded position; he hired grad students as assistants and paid them out of pocket. Depending on what he had going on in terms of research, I'd work 5-10 hours per week, keep up with my own time, and he'd cut me a check at the end of each month at a rate of $10 per hour. A lot of what I did was simple. He'd hand me a list of books and ask me to find them in the library or order them via inter-library loan for him. He'd have me find and print journal articles from research databases. Each year he'd have me fill out forms suggesting items the library should purchase. It wasn't hard work, but it formed a bond between him and the grad students who worked for him. My friend Ryan Anderson (now a professor at UNC-Pembroke) worked for him as well. We loved Otis. We'd be heading for his office in the library quoting lines from Animal House (i.e. "Wait 'til Otis sees us; he loves us!). One final story that will give you an idea of who Otis really was.....we used to have these little get togethers on random Friday afternoons. Grad students and faculty were invited to the faculty lounge and one of the professors would discuss current research they were working on, or an article they had just published; you know, academic stuff. Ryan and I attended those gatherings with some regularity, along with some of our colleagues. The first one we attended left an indelible impression on us. Otis walked in about 5-10 minutes late (which was on time for him), sat down, opened his brief case, took out a bottle of port and a sleeve of plastic cups, and proclaimed "OK, this is now a civilized affair; we may begin."

My other class that fall was History, Memory, and Tradition in American Culture with Dr. Peggy Shaffer. At the time, this class was pretty much over my head. Unfortunately for me, this is largely what the Public History program consisted of at the time; lots of theory and little practice. I have come to appreciate this class over time and were I to take it today I would probably love it. At the time however I struggled through it and did my best. This is the class where my thesis project started out. Dr. Shaffer had been approached by a staff member at Wilmington Industrial Development about doing an organizational history for their upcoming 50th anniversary. Knowing of my interest in oral history, Dr. Shaffer put me in touch with them. For my term paper for her class I interviewed some of the founding members of the organization (and they were all big-time heavy hitters in Wilmington) and produced a paper on their memories of "saving" Wilmington from economic disaster in the 1960s. This became the seed for the larger project.

Through all of this I was still working as a teaching assistant. In the fall semester I worked for Dr. Yixin Chen doing Intro to Global History. Dr. Chen was extremely interesting and a very nice guy. Click the link for a great article about him. In the spring I was assisting with Western Civilization II with Dr. Michael Seidman, whom I had taken for the class as an undergrad. He was very easy to get along with and always entertaining.

In spring semester I had to focus on the upcoming comprehensive exams. I took a directed individual study with Dr. Shaffer which was basically a readings course. I had read large portions of the required reading list for comps through my coursework, but had not even touched the section on the field of material culture. Through this readings course, I read each book on the list that dealt with material culture and had weekly discussion sessions with Dr. Shaffer. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but I had to get it done.

I also took Conflict and Consensus in American History with Dr. Robert Brent Toplin. This was one of my favorite classes of my grad school days and I have many fond memories of it. I had lots of friends in this class and it was one of the most diverse groups I ever sat in a seminar room with. Basically, the entire class was structured in order for us to see the historiographical trends in US History as they related to major topics and issues. Our textbook reading was great; each chapter took an issue in US History and presented three divergent essays on the topic by three different historians. You would have a conservative, middle of the road, and liberal take on each issue and it enabled you to see how historians evaluate things differently. It allowed you to see all sides of an argument, which was exactly what you had to show an understanding of on the comps.

I passed my comprehensive exams without difficulty. For Public History students, we were required to declare a focus on one half of American history (either colonial-1865 or 1865-present). Our comps consisted of one public history question and an American history question from our chosen era. Even though my thesis work was focusing on post-World War II Wilmington, I chose the first half of American history because that's where my interests were and where the vast majority of my coursework had been. With the comps behind me, all that was left was my internship and thesis.

My Career as a Historian - Part Eight

Year One of graduate school, particularly the first semester is where the learning curve really reached up and smacked me upside the head. In hindsight, I was not really prepared for graduate school. Everything happens at a much faster pace and everything is more urgent. I didn't necessarily have that sense of urgency. I knew the work would be more in terms of both difficulty and volume, but I wasn't prepared for the mental shift. This will sound strange to a lot of folks, but I actually had to teach myself how to read. When you are in grad school you are often reading 2, 3, or 4 books a week, and that's just for classes. Then throw in all the reading and research required for research papers and you get the idea. You have to abandon the old mindset of cover-to-cover reading for pleasure. You have to develop a system to get the most you can out of a book without having to read every word. This was a huge leap for me, but something I felt I at least started to accomplish in my first semester. You also have to read analytically, rather than just for pure informational purposes. That turned out to be the hardest transition for me, because intellectually I just wasn't there yet.

Starting out as a part-time graduate student with a full-time job probably didn't help either. The job at Glidden was a real, honest-to-God, 40 hour a week (sometimes more) job. I was the primary delivery driver, loading up the company van once or twice a day to deliver to contractors at job sites all over Wilmington. While in the store, I spent much of my time in the back warehouse area either putting recently delivered stock on the shelves or mixing/tinting paint for customers. I enjoyed the job and the guys I worked with were great, but it took my focus somewhat away from my studies, at least for 8 hours each day.

As for school, I registered for two classes in the fall semester. First, I had to take the ubiquitous Historiography and Methodology class that is required of all graduate students in their first semester. Intellectually, I was not prepared for this class. I really didn't understand much of what we were discussing most of the time, but I managed to skate out with a B. Still, I felt that many of my new classmates had their shit together much more so than I did. Years later, that's been proven a false assumption on my part, but I'll get there later. My second class that semester is what really opened my eyes to what grad school was all about. I was back with Dr. Walt Conser taking Religion in Antebellum America. I was stoked about this class because I had done so well the previous semester in his Religion in Early America class. But that was an undergraduate class, and this was a totally different ballgame. The reading and discussions were intense and very intellectual. The research project that was required had an expectation of professionalism attached to it. I'd never done such work as an undergrad. I admittedly struggled through this class even though I enjoyed the subject matter. I was very seriously worried that I'd get a C, which is really the equivalent of an F in grad school, and would probably signal the end of my career since I was on probation and required to maintain a B average. I remember sitting outside the department office worrying about whether or not I'd come back for another semester. In the end, I got the B that I needed (I'm still not sure how) and a great sense of relief to go along with it. I had survived my probationary semester.

This opened another door for me as I was now able to apply for a teaching assistantship in the department. This would allow me to give up my full-time job at Glidden and really start focusing on the studies. I was awarded an assistantship for the spring semester, working for Dr. David LaVere. He was teaching two sections of US History I, my favorite area. I loved working for him and felt that I had finally found my place. I was working FOR a professor and working WITH students. It was great!

I also had to start thinking about what my focus area would be and what I would write my thesis on. I went into grad school with the idea of focusing on colonial and revolutionary America. I liked Alan Watson a great deal and really wanted to work with him. I proposed some research topic to him in a casual conversation (I don't even remember what it was) and he sort of shot it down. He was very pragmatic about the whole thing, telling me that in order to research that topic I would be required to travel to research libraries and repositories in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, which would make the whole thing very difficult. He suggested thinking of a more local or regional topic. My future path changed my plans and I never revisited this idea (kind of ironic considering the amount of time I spend working with colonial sites in NC and how much more 18th century reenacting I am currently doing).

My second semester I took Mark Spaulding for a seminar in 20th Century Europe. American specialists (which I was) were required to take one non-American seminar. Since I had been through three classes with Spaulding as an undergrad this looked like a good opportunity. This was a cross-listed undergrad/grad course. In these types of courses grad students were to be given extra work in order to bring the class up a level. There were two other grad students in the class with me, and at the end of the first class meeting we approached Dr. Spaulding to ask what our extra assignments would consist of. His answer, "I don't expect more work from my grad students, just better work." We thought we were in serious trouble, but as it turns out I fairly easily managed an A in that seminar.

My other class that semester was my introduction to the field of Public History (yes, this is where it all started). Again, it was a cross-listed undergrad/grad course (we had lots of those in that day and time). The topic was Community Studies; it was basically a class on how to do local history. It was taught by a Visiting Assistant Professor, Dr. Meg Mulrooney. It was a great class, and I absolutely loved it! Aside from doing individual projects, we also had to a class project. For my individual project, I did an oral history interview with a woman at my church who was a school librarian during the tense days of school desegregation in Wilmington. Our class project consisted of a study of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot and the end result was the publication of an African-American Heritage walking tour brochure. Each of us was assigned a site to research and do a short write up for the brochure and the university published it. There was so much involved in this class, its hard to describe it all. Aside from our project work, we had regular readings, guest speakers, and field trips to local repositories, government offices, etc. to learn how to research in public documents. It was an excellent experience and the reason I switched my focus from American history to Public History. I started discussing thesis ideas with Dr. Mulrooney that semester, including doing a community history of the Winterpark community in Wilmington. This was one of Wilmington's many "streetcar suburbs" and the neighborhood where my church was located. The potential for a community history, involving oral history was excellent.

Though I got an A in Dr. Mulrooney's class, my Winterpark thesis idea crashed and burned when she was not invited back. It seems that poking around in the subject area of the 1898 riot so close to its centennial provoked a political backlash. Lots of old Wilmingtonians didn't like us portraying their ancestors as racists and perpetrators of violence, even if the evidence clearly suggested that's exactly what happened. If memory serves correctly, the department wanted to bring Dr. Mulrooney back, but were told they could not. She has since moved on to a couple of other universities (currently James Madison U.) and continues to research the 1898 riot. I credit much of my entrance into the field of Public History to Meg Mulrooney, even to this day. In another bit of irony, my colleague Lerae Umfleet researched and wrote a report on the 1898 riot while an employee at the Research Branch of NC Archives and History. She got much the same backlash as did Meg Mulrooney. Lerae's study of the riot will be published in the coming months by the Historic Publications Division of the Department of Cultural Resources. If you want to read the definitive history, I hope you'll pick up a copy!

My Career as a Historian - Part Seven

Finally, my senior year! Really my second senior year, but who's counting? This was the year to wrap things up with the major and the minor, and figure out what the hell to do from there.

Fall semester I took nothing in the History department, but did a few important things. First, I replaced my other D from a previous semester by retaking Asian Religions. This class was taught by Dr. Joe Wilson. He was really cool and so was the class; I just wasn't prepared to take it as a first-semester freshman and why my advisor ever let me do that I'll never know. So, retook it and got a B+ this time.

I also took a class in the Political Science department that counted as a history class, Contemporary American Foreign Policy with Dr. W. Lee Johnston. Aside from Frank Ainsley, he was probably more influential to me than anyone outside the History department and I think most of my current friends would love this guy. This class was interesting not only because of the topic, but because of the dynamics. There were four history majors in the class and we all sat together. After two rows of empty seats you had all the political science majors on the opposite side of the room. Dr. Johnston was a very energetic (some would even say hyperactive) professor and he loved to just ask a question, point at somebody, and put them on the spot. He'd do this to three or four of the "poli sci" folks and when they couldn't answer he'd come to us. One of us almost always had the answer he was looking for. One day, after a few rounds of this, he looked disgustedly over to the other side of the room and exclaimed "Damn it! I love history majors. You know why? Because they know their shit!" We were his favorites and the poli sci crowd knew it and despised us because of it. One day while I was in his office discussing my term paper progress I asked him why he liked history majors so much. He said, "Son, look at the wall behind you." Hanging right there was a BA in History with his name on it. I only got a B in his class, but I had to bust my tail for that, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I also took yet another class with Frank Ainsley, Geography of North Carolina. This was an open and shut A. The class was easy, the class was fun, but the class was still informative and interesting. It was an in-depth look at the physical, economic, and (mostly) cultural geography of our state.

Spring semester I had to wrap things up with two more Geography courses and two more History courses. Luckily for me I was able to take both Geography courses with Frank Ainsley. They were certainly different from other courses he taught, but both were historical/cultural geography. First was Geography of the Middle East, and second was Historical Geography of Scandinavia (yes, you read that correctly, Scandinavia). Off the wall topics, but fun classes nonetheless.

For my two History courses I couldn't have picked anything more divergent. First, I was back with Dr. Mark Spaulding to take a Senior Seminar on European Radical Right Wing movements. This actually worked out pretty well in one regard. Since I was already studying Scandinavia, I expanded that outlook for the seminar. We had to write a series of short papers leading up to a larger research paper. I focused all my research on the puppet Nazi organizations that were established in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, etc. This was a very difficult class, but I managed an A-.

My other History class was Religion in Early America, taught by Dr. Walter Conser. I loved this class because I have always been interested in the religious history of the country, and the histories of various denominations. This class was also very difficult, but I was very proud to get an A when it was all said and done.

Aside from wrapping up my coursework, I spent much of this year thinking about and applying to graduate programs. I finally decided the best way to go would be to stay in the History field. My goal was to get the MA, then proceed to a PhD and become a college professor. I liked the campus setting, the academic life, etc. My grades were not stellar; they weren't bad, but they weren't top notch. I developed a wish list of programs starting with my dream schools, and winding up with my last ditch, final options. I applied to a lot of programs, which I realize now was a huge waste of money and time. I applied to the University of Virginia and Penn State. I knew I had no chance, so I shouldn't have wasted those application fees, but I did because those were my dream schools. For my last ditch, final options I settled on Eastern Kentucky University and Old Dominion. Now, there's nothing at all wrong with either of these schools. However, their admissions standards were lower (in the case of EKU, much lower) than most other schools. In the middle were a number of schools including Villanova, Appalachian State, NC State, and UNCW. I figured if nothing else I'd get into EKU, ODU, and UNCW which is exactly what happened. I was terribly disappointed that I didn't get into ASU, and somewhat less disappointed about NCSU and Villanova. I realized that I was a borderline possibility at those schools, but I really felt that I should have gotten into App State.

Now I had a decision to make, and it was going to be based on finances. I knew the folks at UNCW had admitted me because I was a known commodity, so to speak, and I was admitted under probationary status. EKU offered me $14,000 per year in loans (not the greatest option). ODU's history department offered me nothing, but my contacts in campus recreation got me a graduate fellowship with their campus rec program. The pay was only $500 per month. Living in Norfolk on that kind of money didn't appeal to me either. If I went back to UNCW the only financial aid I could count on was in the form of loans. However, I had a full-time job waiting for me if I returned to Wilmington. I spent the summer at my parents' house mulling over my options and decided to go back to Wilmington. I informed the History department that I would be a part-time student, and I took a full-time job working with my friend Carl at a paint store (Glidden, to be exact). Grad school wasn't starting out the way I had envisioned it, but at least I was in and I was ready to prove myself.

My Career as a Historian - Part Six

The 1994-95 academic year is what I refer to as my "First Senior Year." I ended up on the 5-year plan for reasons that will become obvious over the course of this post.

So I had decided to ditch the School of Ed. and pick up a double major in Geography. I embarked whole-heartedly on this in the Fall of 1994. I had all History and Geography (or related) courses this semester. In the History Department I had History of Germany, 1648-1890 with Dr. Mark Spaulding. Being of German descent, I had been chomping at the bit to take this class. Dr. Spaulding was known as a tough professor, and the class was pretty difficult, but I managed a B. I also had the ever popular Civil War and Reconstruction class, then taught by the aforementioned mentor, John Haley. This was not an easy class and I only got a B. However, my proudest moment of the semester was receiving an A on my term paper for the class, which Dr. Haley referred to as one of the most original Civil War papers a student of his had ever written. My topic was the formation of the state of West Virginia (for those that are unaware, the western counties of Virginia seceded from the state after the state seceded from the Union; Lincoln then supported their separate statehood, calling into question his views on the constitutionality of secession).

On the Geography side I took two intro courses, Economic Geography and Intro to Physical Geography. Intro to Physical was my least favorite of the geography courses, but I took it with an adjunct instructor, which made it a bit easier. The Economic Geography course was taught by now-retired Duncan Randall. He was a Wilmington native and the UNCW library was named for his father, so he was connected. He had studied at UNC-Chapel Hill and was a pure economic geographer, having written his dissertation on the economic geography of the Lower Cape Fear. Students feared him; his nickname was "Flunkin' Duncan" because so many people failed his classes. His office was dark and wreaked of smoke because he smoked like a chimney. I loved his class and did well (comparably), making a B. I used his dissertation as part of my thesis research in grad school. He retired the semester after I took his class and I feel lucky to have had him as a professor. I was also required to take a statistics course and quantitative analysis for my double major, so this semester I registered for the stat class. It was more than I could handle mathematically, so I withdrew. This left me in a quandary as to my decision to double major. I realized that stat and quant would be my downfall and decided it was best to back down to a minor in Geography (stat and quant were not required for the minor). However, I had now wasted so much time taking classes that wouldn't really count for anything that I realized it would take me an extra semester to graduate. Being young and stupid, I said "what the hell, I'll just take a whole extra year and have some fun!"

That fun began the following semester, Spring 1995. I had three History classes and retook a math class that I had earlier received a D in. I figured if I was in it for an extra year I might as well retake two classes and replace those D grades with better ones. I followed up my class with Dr. Spaulding by taking his next class, History of Germany, 1890-Present. I actually got an A- in that class, so I was making progress with him. Unfortunately, I negated that grade by getting a B- in History of the Caribbean. We had to take at least one "non-Western" history course, and I decided that this class would be more fun than an Asian or African history class. It was taught by a visiting professor from a university somewhere in the Caribbean. She and I didn't see eye to eye socially or politically and I pretty much blew off the class as a result. I'm probably lucky to have gotten a B-, as she could easily have given me a C. Finally, I was back with Frank Ainsley yet again to take a class that was cross-listed as both History and Geography, Historic Preservation Planning. This was a great class and probably got me started thinking about the public history field. I did my research project on preservation of covered bridges in Somerset County, PA. Me and my friend Glenn took a trek up to PA to visit my grandparents and one of their friends took us to every covered bridge in the county (and there are about 8 of them). This included a bridge that was being repaired and restored by Amish craftsmen (how's that for historic preservation in action)! One of these days I'll have to scan some of those photos and add them to this post. I easily got an A in this class.

I was now finally on track. I had one year left to figure out which direction I was headed, but I knew how I would finish this stage of the race. I would end up with a BA in History and a minor in Geography. From there, it was anyone's guess, but graduate school seemed like the ultimate goal. The only question was in which field, history, geography, or parks and recreation (still a possibility due to my involvement with campus rec and intramural sports)?

My Career as a Historian - Part Five

My junior year of college was time to start getting serious about history, and resulted in a couple of changes to my academic program. In fall semester I was slated to take my first upper level history class. I wanted to register for History of Ireland, which at the time was taught by the most senior member in the department, Mr. Walser Allen. Mr. Allen (he did not have a PhD) was easily 70 years old, and I'm sure much older. He had been in the department for a very long time and it was his final year teaching. The class was closed, so I decided to try to add it on the first day of the semester. When I arrived, I found a seminar room made for 25 people was packed with over 40 students wanting to take the class. Obviously there was no getting in and I never got the opportunity to take a class with Walser Allen.

I had registered for a seminar on 20th century Europe with Dr. Michael Seidman, my old Western Civ II professor. The first day of class he took me aside and said that he doubted I was ready for such an intense class. This was a senior level seminar and I had not ever taken an upper level class. Upon this advice I dropped the class and replaced it with US Since 1945 with Dr. Robert Brent Toplin. Dr. Toplin was great. He was a bit absent-minded, but he was a good professor. Like any novice history student, I made some pretty stupid comments in that class over the course of the semester, but the more seasoned upper classmen always made sure to correct me! My friend Carl was in the class with me, which made it very enjoyable. My term paper for that class was about media coverage of the Tet Offensive of January 1968, a topic that I would revisit later in my academic career as well.

Also in the fall semester I found myself back with Frank Ainsley again, this time for Historical Geography of North America. That was a great class, and put me one step closer to making an academic change. I also had American Literature II with Dr. Keith Newlin. While I didn't perform very well in that class, I really did enjoy it. We had to do group projects, and my group was assigned to examine the Beat generation of the 1950s. What a great assignment, especially since I was studying that time period in my history class.

Spring semester I had two history classes. First, I was back with Alan Watson to take his Colonial US History course. A number of friends, including Carl, took that class with me. I did a term paper on religious toleration in colonial Pennsylvania for that class. I also had a class called Practice of History, which was a newly developed historiography class for undergrads. Professors took turns teaching it and that semester it was taught by Dr. Bruce Kinzer, who was the department chair at the time. We had to write a term paper (topic of our choosing) and since I was already researching in the colonial field I chose to write a paper on religious toleration in colonial North Carolina. So that semester was all about religious toleration in colonial America for me.

By this point, I was also President of the UNCW History Club, renamed the Chroniclers. My sophomore year the club almost fell apart. Many of the members had graduated and there was no one to take over the club. My friends Jeff and Carl, and I decided to take the reigns and try to keep the club going, which we did. Jeff served as President that year and then I took over because Jeff was graduating. Bruce Kinzer agreed to be our new faculty advisor for Jeff's tenure, and we then recruited Michael Seidman to take over when I became President.

Finally, in spring of my junior year, I took another (and what turned out to be my final) education course, Instructional Design. The class was supposed to teach us how to write lesson plans. The very first day of class the professor told us that what he was going to teach was what the state required all teachers to be able to do. However, in real life and practice we would never use these skills and would develop our own way to do things. That was the last straw for me. Why was I wasting my time learning things that I would never use? I completed the class, but at the end of my junior year I decided to change course. I dropped out of the Watson School of Education and took on Geography as a double major. I wasn't terribly sure what I'd do when I graduated, but I figured I had time to get that sorted out. I knew that I didn't want to be a teacher and suffer through all those education courses for nothing. I was involved in a lot of different things, including campus recreation and intramural sports, working as a sports official and site supervisor. I thought maybe I'd finish my studies then transition in to that field after graduation. Whatever I did, I knew it wasn't going to involve the public school system.

My Career as a Historian - Part Four

I look at my sophomore year in college as the year I really started to "find myself," for lack of a better phrase, and to figure out where my future was really headed. I felt pretty confident going in because I had all the Western Civ/Global History surveys behind me and I was going to take US History, certainly something I felt I could handle much better. It also ended up being a year in which I first became acquainted with three more mentors.

First semester I had the first half of the US History survey. My professor was Dr. Alan Watson. Now of course, I was not aware of Dr. Watson's status within the realm of North Carolina history, but I soon learned. I loved his class, though most students found it boring and tedious, and generally struggled. His teaching style was very similar to my old high school teacher Mr. Maxwell. I found him to be engaging, demanding, but fair, and possessing a sense of humor that I think few students even picked up on. This class ended up being the first A on my college transcript, since freshman year I had struggled to get Bs. One other thing I liked about the class was the textbook. Dr. Watson used America by George Tindall and David Shi. So when it came time to choose my professor for US History II, I consciously looked for someone who used the same text.

I also took my first Education class in that fall semester, Teacher, School, and Society. I hated it. I thought it was a bunch of crap. I put very little effort into it, slogged through, and got a C. This should have signalled something to me, but I figured it was one class, one professor, and things would get better. You know how those introductory courses can be, right?

Spring semester introduced me to two more mentors. For US History II, I decided to take Dr. John Haley. As my friend Jack Fryar has said, John Haley was the "suavest dude" to ever teach history at UNCW. Dr. Haley was great and had a lasting impact on my career, as did Dr. Watson. Over the next few years I would spend a lot of time with Dr. Haley, either in his office or out on the back steps of the building where he preferred to take his smoke breaks.

I also had my first geography class this spring semester. It was Intro to Human Geography taught by Dr. Frank Ainsley. Over the next few years, I would take five more classes with Dr. Ainsley. After taking his Intro class I decided I would take as many geography courses as I could to fill in my "collaterals" for my teaching cert. I already had one under my belt with the past year's political science course, and I had to have at least one collateral from three different areas. So, while I was taking Dr. Haley's US History and Dr. Ainsley's Intro to Human Geography, I also took Survey of Economics. This class was an economics class for non-business majors and it was sort of a "learn economic principles and theories by studying everyday life" type of a class. We learned about economics by looking at current events. Our textbook, such as it was, was a very brief collection of articles about basic economic principles applied to the modern world. A lot of my classmates hated this class, but I found it mildly interesting.

Two more Education classes rounded out my sophomore year. School Learning was really an educational psychology class, and Basic Concepts of Math was a math course designed for Ed majors that was supposed to teach us how to teach math. It was probably the most interesting math class I've ever taken, but I was glad to be done with my math requirements once it was over. After all, I was never going to teach math. So it was one more year in the book and three new mentors to help shape my career. It turned out to be a pretty good year.

My Career as a Historian - Part Three

In order to keep these posts to a manageable length, I am going to break down my college and grad school years into a few posts. So here we go with Freshman year.

When I arrived at UNCW, I registered as an Education major since I planned on being a high school teacher. So I got an advisor in the Watson School of Education. In our first advising session he explained to me that since I wanted to teach high school I would have to change my major to History, and take the Ed courses needed to receive certification (basically, there was no degree in Secondary Ed at that time at UNCW; one simply majored in their subject area and got certification through the Watson School). I would also have to take a certain number of courses in collateral areas (i.e. geography, political science, economics, etc.) as well to receive Social Studies certification.

One of the first people I met when I moved into the dorm was Carl Williams, a friend to me still today. Carl was from Kinston (ironic, huh?) and was a history major. There were also a few other history majors living on my hall and I immediately began picking their brains about which professors to take. They all told me something different and that's when I realized I was going to have to experience the faculty for myself. Carl also introduced me to the student group Fellowship of Christian University Students. I became very active in that group, served as an officer, and maintained my membership throughout college. The campus minister Bob Haywood and his assistant Jim Sims were both very influential to me and I met more friends than I could ever count in that group.

First semester freshman year my advisor signed me up for Western Civ I with Dr. Larry Usilton. The class was Monday and Wednesday at 6 p.m. Two factors combined to make this a difficult class. I am of the opinion that no advisor should ever have a first semester freshman take Western Civ I. Most high school students don't get a whole lot of exposure to that particular area of history, making it somewhat difficult. That, combined with the time of the class made it very difficult for me. I had never taken night classes and this class was hard. I did my best, but at semester's end I was a few points short of a B. However, I was given a gift. When I went to the professor's office to find out how I had done on the final exam he looked over my grade, and noticed that I had missed no classes. He asked if I was a history major and I said I was. He said getting a C in my first history class wasn't a good way to start out and gave me the points needed to push me up to a B. I was eternally grateful, and though I never took another class with Dr. Usilton he was always one of my favorite people in the department.

Dr. Usilton was the faculty advisor for the History Club my freshman year. The History Club was a student organization for history majors. We had a monthly meeting where a faculty member would give a brief presentation and as a university sponsored group we were given a small budget for projects. That year the group decided to take a late fall semester trip to Washington DC. In mid-November a bunch of us piled into a university owned 15 passenger van and embarked for DC for a weekend. I was the only freshman on the trip and I realized how naive I really was. The only thing I really remember about that weekend is getting drunk in the hotel bar with a couple of the older students. The History Club would play a major role in my college career from that point forward, and never again did it involve alcohol.

Second semester I had two history courses, Western Civ II with Dr. Michael Seidman and Intro to Globabl History with Dr. Ravi Kalia. Western Civ II was much easier than the first half of the class had been and I really liked Dr. Seidman. I was really starting to feel more comfortable. Dr. Kalia's class was more difficult. The class focused on Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Dr. Kalia was from India, but he wasn't one of those dumpy looking professors that I had seen in the math department. Ravi was a playboy; convertible sports car, Armani suits, etc. He loved food, drink, and women, not necessarily in that order. He was also my new advisor since I had officially become a history major. Though I liked him and he had a big influence on me, I still got a C in his class. It was also in his class that I met one of my best friends, who I still communicate with to today, Jeffrey Baynes. Jeff and I struggled through that class together. He was a few years older than me, but a little delayed in his college career. Jeff and I became study partners and friends, and would take other classes together in later semesters.

That second semester I also took my first political science class, American National Government with Dr. Earl Sheridan. Dr. Sheridan was an excellent professor and active in the community, holding office in the local NAACP. This was during the administration of the first President Bush and I remember fondly Dr. Sheridan referring to the Pres and VP as "Brother Bush and Brother Quayle." I thoroughly enjoyed this class and would return to take more political science classes in the future.

I took no education classes my first year, so I was still on track to be a high school history teacher. It wasn't until my Sophomore year that I would start to think about changing my career path.

My Career as a Historian - Part Two

Installment two of this self-reflective narrative will cover the years 1985-1991, basically my middle school and high school years. This is probably the point in my life where I was least involved in history, oddly enough.

My family left rural southwestern PA in September 1985 to return to eastern NC. Looking back on things, I find it very interesting how the decisions my parents made really did effect my long-term track in life. I often wonder what I'd be doing had we stayed in PA? But even more minute than that, where my parents chose to live when we returned to NC determined a lot, including which school I would attend. Though we lived closer to Jacksonville, I attended school at Swansboro. We were so close to the district boundary that had I jumped the fence behind our house and walked 100 yards down the road I would have attended Tabernacle Middle/White Oak High instead. As it turns out, I found a number of mentors at Swansboro that greatly influenced me. In middle school we took World History in 7th grade and, of course, NC History in 8th. I don't remember much about 7th grade World History except my teacher was a very large African-American woman who spoke with a heavy lisp and her name was Ms. McLean. I also remember sitting at a table with a bunch of cut-ups who always got us in trouble. Finally, I remember that every Friday was current events day and each of us, with a partner, had to go to the front of the class and deliver a current events report, newscaster style. My friend Kevin and I, obviously not taking this assignment seriously, gave the WWF wrestling report each week. How I passed, I'll never know.

8th grade NC History was a different story. Everyone dreaded the possibility of having to take that class with Mr. LeCount, who was the football coach. He was terribly boring (though I loved him as a PE teacher), taught the whole class by putting up overhead sheet after overhead sheet, and yet his class was still extremely difficult. I lucked out and got Mr. O.B. Maxwell, my first Swansboro mentor. Mr. Maxwell was an older, country gentleman who came to school wearing Dickies work pants and plaid flannel shirts. His face was very rugged and he had a full beard year round. Though his hair and beard were gray, his mustache and part of his beard was stained yellow from chain smoking his whole life. He was also the girls' softball coach and in the summer he had a baseball card business. He travelled around to card and hobby shows and bought, sold, and traded baseball cards. He taught at both the middle school and high school, which at that time were right next to each other (in fact, the middle school used the same cafeteria as the high school). I loved his NC History class and made sure to take him for two more classes in high school. He took us on a field trip to Tryon Palace. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, I don't remember a damn thing about it other than the fact that we went there. I apologize to my many friends at Tryon Palace, but it's the truth.

Freshman year of high school I met another mentor, Elaine Sioufi (who oddly enough, a number of years after I graduated, married O.B. Maxwell, who is now deceased). She was my Civics teacher as well as one of the two coaches of the Academic Derby team, of which I was a member for three years. She was a great teacher and a big supporter of me personally. Her coaching partner, Susan Casper, was the school librarian and also a wonderful lady. When scheduling classes for my sophomore year, I had an option to take World Civilization or World Geography, another favorite subject of mine. I was informed that it was the last year Geography would be offered and since Mr. Maxwell was the teacher I jumped on it. Junior year I had Maxwell again for US History. I had one other mentor in high school who, believe it or not, was a math teacher. I had him three of my four years and his name was Joe Hicks. He was a great guy, and still teaches at Swansboro today.

Throughout my middle school and high school years I was involved in other things as well, particularly music. From 7th-9th grade I was in band, and from 10th-12th I was in chorus. For five years straight I was involved in the annual high school musical (no Disney jokes, please) and even had the lead role my junior year. I was also active in my church's youth group, and youth and adult choirs. Most people who knew me during these years thought that I was destined for one of two things. Some thought that I would major in music and go on to become a music teacher. I loved music, but I knew I wasn't that talented, so the thought never even crossed my mind. A lot of other folks, particularly at church, thought that I would one day become a Presbyterian minister. I'm not sure what ever gave anyone that idea, but I've never seriously entertained it, so go figure. All along, I held on to this notion that I had formed in 4th grade of being a Social Studies teacher. However, I had modified that goal somewhat and decided that I'd rather teach high school than elementary school.

My senior year it came time to start the college application process. I had always wanted to go to a small private Presbyterian college like St. Andrew's or Montreat. Then I realized how much more they cost than state universities and realized that's the route I needed to go. I applied for the NC Teaching Fellows scholarship, which required me to apply to at least three schools. UNC-Wilmington was my first choice, but I was having trouble coming up with 2nd and 3rd. I wanted to apply to UNC-Asheville but my mother talked me out of it because she said it was too far away. I had no desire to go to a big school like Carolina or NC State, and I damn sure wasn't going to go to ECU because that's where EVERYBODY from Swansboro went in those days, and I wanted to get away from those people! So, I applied to UNC-Charlotte and NC Central. Yep, that's right, NC Central. That pretty much sealed the deal; no matter what happened, I was going to UNCW. In hindsight, I'm so very glad that I didn't get that scholarship. I would have been trapped into teaching for at least four years, and along about my junior year I decided I no longer wanted to be a teacher, or at least not in that sense. So in August of 1991 off I went to UNCW to embark on the next chapter. NC Central continued to pursue me, offering huge minority scholarships, well into my sophomore year, when they finally realized that I had no interest in transferring.

My Career as a Historian - Part One

One of the things I've always contemplated doing with this blog is to sort of write out my career in the history business. This will serve at least two purposes: first, it will be very retrospective for me; and it will also give some of you blog readers out there a little better idea of how I got to where I am today. I don't know how many posts this will take, nor how many days/weeks/months it will take me to get around to finishing this little "project." Check back for updates as I can put them down. So with that introduction, here's Part One.

I've been interested in history for as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to story records about Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett. My school classes regularly took trips to various historic sites around the area, and we took family trips during the summer as well. Though I was born in NC, I spent 10 years of my childhood in southwestern PA. Some of the sites I remember visiting as a kid include Fort Ligonier, Old Bedford Village, and of course Gettysburg.

My interest in history ran deeper and was fostered much more than by simply visiting these and other historic sites. My maternal grandparents, and aunt and uncle were all very involved with the local historical association, now the Somerset County Historical Center. The second weekend of September each year they all helped out with the annual Mountain Craft Days festival. So, as soon as I was old enough, I was enrolled in the Junior Historian program. We had monthly meetings where we learned about the area's history from various museum staff members. We also were taught historical activities such as wool carding, using a drop spindle, etc. Each of us had to carve our own wooden spoon (I still have mine, and let me tell you it's pretty crude). We were also trained to give tours of the farmstead to visitors, and had to do a certain number of volunteer hours as tour guides. Each of us was supposed to dress in "pseudo costume," meaning that the boys wore 18th century shirts with jeans and work boots, while the girls wore frontier style dresses. My grandmother made my shirt, which I also still have. I call it my first ever bit of reenacting gear. During Mountain Craft Days we were all "apprenticed" to one of the craftsmen. On winter days, when it wasn't busy with tours I spent a lot of time in the museum's research library, reading about my family history (as you can imagine, the place was a big genealogy center).

At about the same time, I had my first great Social Studies teacher. It was 4th grade at Shanksville-Stonycreek School, K-12 all in one big building. His name was Fred Cotchen, and he was just a cool guy. I loved his Social Studies class, which was more geography than anything else, as I recall. His brother-in-law was none other than Jeff Hostetler (of NY Giants Super Bowl fame), who at the time was a college QB. He came to visit our class and us 10 year old boys were star-struck. By the way, if you lived in that part of PA you were likely either a Penn State fan or West Virginia fan. People loved the Steelers, but there weren't too many University of Pittsburgh fans around. I'm not sure what it was about Mr. Cotchen's class, but he made me want to be a Social Studies teacher. I held onto that notion well through middle school and high school, and at least partially into my college career before changing my mind.

Two years later, my family moved back to eastern NC and so this makes a good stopping point for now. I left a whole world filled with history behind, not sure what there would be to take it's place. All I knew of Jacksonville and Onslow County was Camp Lejeune and the beach because when we had come down on vacations that's where we spent all our time. It would take me years to find the rich history that surrounded me.