THE
HEIRLOOM STORY
Heirloom's story is a personal story
of two people, Bill and Gene Bonyun, and their devotion to an idea:
that America's history has been told in ballad and song, and that
through these ballads and songs history can be re-experienced by
all of us.
During their years of wresting a living from their island farm in
Maine's coastal waters Bill and Gene learned many traditional songs
from their neighbors on long winter evenings. Fascinated by the
beauty, simplicity and emotional impact of these old songs, Bill
began digging into their background.
The more he dug the more excited he became. For here was history-living
history told by the very people who had experienced it, in a form
which was not only easy to understand but forever fresh and alive.
And with their background and historical meaning sketched in they
became living documents of all phases of history.
Disinterested adults sat up and took notice; children to whom history
had been drudgery begged for more. Moved by the reactions Bill began
visiting local schools-for fun at first, but word got around and
school principals began to ask for his services.
But this wasn't enough. He felt a deep need for an understanding
of classroom needs. How else but to teach? So he studied nights
at Teachers College, Columbia, and emerged with a master's degree
in education, a teaching license and a classroom of children in
Smith Street School, Uniondale, N. Y.
Here his ideas really began to take practical shape. Fellow teachers
requested ideas for their teaching programs, so with the help of
his pupils he began working out units of study on tape which, after
trial in other classes and in audio-visual classes at Columbia University,
were reworked and put in final form for resource material.
Meanwhile, New England's famous living museum, Old Sturbridge Village,
heard about Bill's work and asked him to recreate history in song
for their visitors during the summer months. People began asking
for records, books, anything they could have in their homes and
schools to retell what Bill had created for them. Folksong collections
could be had by the dozen, but there simply wasn't anything in existence
which told America's story in this way.
Thus Heirloom was born, so named because each record is an heirloom
of America's past.
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