Recess! Media

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You’re hearing a very scratchy portion of the folksong, “Miss Jenia Jones,” from one of the first multi-media packages for children, the Bubble Book from 1918. Each volume in this popular series combined a book with small 78 rpm recordings. But why would a song like this be recorded in the first place? In it Miss Jenia Jones is met, greeted, and then dies and has to be properly buried. We asked Jane Marino, from the Sacarsdale Public Library, who has been studying these songs what the origins and evolution might have been of a song like this.

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And this led us to ask her why songs like “Miss Jenia Jones” or other children’s games songs, like “London Bridge” have survived for centuries. Was there some deep significance in these songs?

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