After 42 years working in the science department at Poly, Bart Moroney has perfected his Sunday routine. 

He starts his Sundays bright and early at 7:30 a.m. with a dog walk and his morning coffee. This is an ironically late start for him in comparison to his usual 5:30 wakeup during the school week. He takes his dog, fittingly named Breezy, down to the beach not so far from his house in Breezy Point. After a long walk down the shoreline, he returns home to meet with his wife before getting ready for Sunday Mass. 

Moroney adds that after Mass, he loves to read the Sunday papers, and that “to cover all the bases, [he’ll] get the Times and the Post.” He notes that relaxing and reading the papers is the most important part of his routine, and he enjoys “being the old guy that actually still reads the newspaper.”

Then, he and Breezy go for their second walk of the day. They head down to the beach again. “I walk down the beach and she swims parallel to me,” Moroney said. He says watching Breezy splash around in the water and strolling down the beach is his favorite part of his routine. However, Moroney noted that “the water’s getting a little cold even for me and I grew up swimming in New England,” so he’s going to have to start keeping Breezy on a leash soon.

If the Patriots are on, Moroney and Breezy return home to watch the game. Being from New England, Moroney has been a Boston sports fan his whole life. It wasn’t always fun, but “since 2000 it’s been a pretty good ride being a Boston fan,” Additionally, he mentions that as a New Englander “the fall is one of my favorite times, [and] Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You just watch football and eat. You don’t have to buy anybody anything.” 

After the game Moroney likes to go outside again for some solo bird-watching. He has been an avid bird-watcher for many years; he comments that he’s seen “bald eagles and all kinds of crazy ducks” within a short distance of his New York City home. He scours the internet to see where rare birds are being spotted and if anything catches his eye, he’ll go scout it out and try to find it. He noted that the fall is an especially good time for bird-watching as it’s a big migration season. 

Moroney has traveled the country to go find birds, and notes that one of his favorite spots is in Florida: “My wife would go sit on the beach and I’d go look for birds.” Moroney related a story about an experience he had a number of years ago at Poly summer camp with Harold Bernieri, a Poly history teacher. He and Bernieri, also a bird-watcher, were working at Poly summer, when they discovered a rare bird from Europe had showed up on Coney Island after a storm. They raced out to the beach to try and get a glimpse of the bird, and excitingly they found it. These two Poly teachers have bonded over their common interest in bird-watching and frequently discuss the topic.

After bird-watching, Moroney might assist his wife in the kitchen. “I’m not the world’s greatest cook, but I might help make a meatloaf, or more likely grill something outside,” he said. Then, after dinner, for all you 10th graders stressing about your chemistry grade, Moroney will at last check his email, “which [he] ha[s] not looked at over the weekend,” and finish up some last-minute grading. 

Moroney notes that his routine has changed a lot since his son moved out recently. “He had games every Saturday so we would go to his games, all the errands like shopping and dry-cleaning had to be done on Sunday, but that’s over so we do that on Saturday so we can have Sunday free.” Moroney’s Sunday concludes with watching the 10 o’clock news and then being in bed by 11, ready for the upcoming school week.