Keeping oral history traditions alive at HVRHS

FALLS VILLAGE — Students in Peter Vermilyea’s ECE American history class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School learn history first hand through the annual oral history project.

Many have read about the sinking of the Titanic in books, but one young woman in his class in 1999 was able to talk to a survivor, who was 6-years old at the time. “The only thing she remembered was that her stuffed animal fell into the water,” recalled Vermilyea. Another teen got to speak with astronaut Alan Shepard.

He was part of a Zoom discussion on Tuesday, April 22, moderated by Judith Monachina, founding director of the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College in Massachusetts.

Most of the interviews in the early years of the program, which began when Vermilyea arrived at the school decades ago, had a bit more of a local flavor. Students, who are juniors, would interview their grandparents or great-grandparents, or those they knew in their communities.

Vermilyea said one of his favorite images was one told to a student by an alumnus, who talked about walking home from high school in the 1940s and stealing warm pies that were cooling on a woman’s windowsill. “Such stories allow the students to connect with the past. They can be hand-in-hand with actual history.”

Vermilyea detailed the origins of the oral history program, noting the first year he used tape recorders and had the students transcribe the interviews, which they didn’t enjoy at all. Yet, when he talked with the teens when they were seniors, when asked what they liked best about the course, they all replied it was doing oral histories. “Once they could reflect upon it, they realized they loved it.”

While many of the interviews brought praise from their teacher, one that was a disappointment stands out. Vermilyea said a student talked about his grandfather’s experiences serving in the Korean War. “It was fascinating and I wanted to know more. Then we found the whole thing was lifted from a Korean War magazine. When asked why he did it, the young man said his grandfather was boring. I don’t know which was worse; the plagiarism or that he didn’t think his grandfather had anything meaningful to say.” Then Vemilyea added, “Everyone has an important story to tell.”

But he emphasized the students are directed not to pry and there are certain subjects that are not approached. They are also instructed to ask open-ended questions to avoid getting “yes” or “no” answers. The one question always asked, which gets terrific responses, is “What advice would you give to your younger self?”

Something that has stuck with him was the note he received from a student revealing his father, who was older, died the year after the young man graduated. He had interviewed his dad for the oral history and wrote to tell Vermilyea that having the transcript of the interview with his father meant so much to him.

In 2016, Vermilyea began teaching the Early College Experience program through the University of Connecticut, which gives students who pass the course six college credits. He decided to switch from the old model of oral histories since it was getting harder to interview people due to geography. So, he embarked on a decades project, realizing Region One is an area steeped in tradition. He brought alumni collectively from various years to meet with and talk to the students about their high school experiences.

The first group consisted of 17 graduates from the 1950s and two from the 1940s. Vermilyea said the interviewees were so excited to be asked and went all out, bringing old yearbooks, artifacts and one even wore her poodle skirt. “To this day, that was the best moment of my teaching career. Those students and graduates fell in love with each other.”

He said when the students were asked what it’s like to be a high school student now, the teens turned the tables and asked the guests what they remembered from their school days. Popular questions were about what song when heard brings them back to their high school days and what foods were popular then.

Vermilyea humorously said when it came time to focus on the ‘90s, he declared that was not really history since he was a student of the era. But last year he broke down and focused on that decade. “Things really changed then. In the early years, we’d send out 60 to 70 letters and maybe get 15 responses. Because of Facebook and texting, last year we reached out to 18 and get 18 back. They were able to do it online, which gave some flexibility.”

Nowadays, with more technological advancements and the aid of AI, the process is somewhat streamlined and the transcriptions are much easier to construct. However, the process involves a lot of work, taking about six months to complete.

This year, the project will return to having students interview those from the 1950s and ’60s. He is very grateful to the Housatonic Valley Regional Alumni Association, which helped gather names for this exercise.