Excerpt of interview of Gladys Clark by Maida Bergeron, LA Folklife Program Director at the LA Open House Storytelling Program, c. 1990

Louisiana Folklife Program Project Files, Mss. 4730

Interviewer [Maida Owens]: Thank you. You're welcome. Oh, Gladys. You have, you're a weaver, but a different type of weaver, right?

Gladys Clark: Yes. I'm an Acadian weaver. [French] I learned to weave from my mother when I was a young girl. She would card and spin the brown cotton to make the blankets. And we were nine kids in the family . . .
and she would weave at least 12 blankets for each of us. So when we were young, we had to help to do the carding and the spinning and also the weaving. So I learned from her . . .

The Acadians would grow that brown cotton for their own use. The white cotton was grown to sell for their, for their money, for the little money they had but the brown cotton. . . And in the last day of the season, which was in Maurice, we lived in, in Lafayette Parish, but the closest gin was in Maurice, which is in Vermilion Parish, and the last day of ginning, which was on a Saturday, Saturday afternoon, all those Acadian people living around there would go with a brown cart and they would gin it free.

So we'd come home and we'd have to card and spin, and weave year round. And we had carding parties, we’d invite all the neighbors. We'd first of all, we had to clean our cotton because in those days, the gin wouldn't clean the cotton as clean as they do now. So you had to fluff your cotton, pick all the little seeds out, all the little impurities out of it, and, and then, card it and spin it.
. . . then we'd . . . prepare our cotton ahead of time and invite all the ladies around home and, we'd card and we'd tell jokes or, gossip or whatever. And we, and we also had serve lemonade and coffee and a few sweet, the ‘tit gateau (little dry cakes). So, then, 2 or 3 weeks later, another person in the neighborhood would have her carding party, and we would go there and help them out.

So it was a big help. So that's the way I've learned from my mother. And this is something made out of the brown cotton, the cotton which I grew myself. I grow it out in my garden. And this is a placemat. Now what I spin is a very fine weave. What my mother would spend was a lot heavier yarn, but a softer yarn to make the blankets.

But they would also make some sheets out of the out of the, the yarn that they'd spin, which was about this size of thread, this size of yarn. But of course, I buy all the white yarn that I use. I only spin the brown and I've learned from my mother when I was a very young girl, and for a time after I got married, well, that I just sort of quit carding and spinning and, I would help my husband out in the field, we grow cotton, corn and potatoes.

And so we, I helped him out there. But I would also love to sew. And one year, Miss Louise Olivier, from, Grand Coteau. She would, go in all the French parishes of Louisiana to learn the French songs. And as she traveled through those parishes, she found all sorts of craftspeople, people working with their hands, such as the weaving and carding, spinning in a weaving and the palmetto braiding and, different crafts.

So she got interested in, trying to make a project out of it. The project was called the, what was it called? The, well, I don't remember exactly. . . how it was called it was sponsored by LSU [Acadian Handicraft Project]. So she would, go around and . . . sell our products. We would weave and card and spin.

But at that time, I wanted to sew. I didn't want a card and spin, which is, you're going to make some bonnets and, little pin offers. But at one time when we, we'd have demonstrations all over the state. So when there was a demonstrating the carding, spinning and weaving, I'd go with her. So one day,

[Louise Olivier] says “Gladys, if your mother passes away, there'll be nobody to do it. So you better start carding and spinning and weaving.” So that's when she got me back interested into the carding and spinning. And when she passed away, LSU just dropped the project altogether. And, and a lady from St. Martinville, Mrs. Dickie Daspitt, bought all those looms from the University and the which the loom that I'm weaving on I've been having it for at least 45 years. It was ordered and brought home, [Mrs. Daspitt] says “Gladys. If something happens to me, this is your loom. Just keep it.” So poor lady passed away two years ago, but I have still have the loom that I've been waiting on for that that many years. And I enjoy weaving.

I've done it for a long, long time, and I still enjoy doing it. I don't know for how long I'll be able to do it, how many more years, but I'll do it as long as I can.

Interviewer: Well, you mainly you make the, placemats and napkins, right?

Gladys Clark: Placemats and napkins and table runners. Yes. On that loom, I have it threaded.

12 by 12 inches wide . . . have 400 threads on my loom to weave 12 inches wide, which is very fine weaving . . . Okay, this is a sample of the fine weaving. I use the same, thread for the warp and the weft. So it is a very fine, fine weave. Now for the placemats, one of which is a, it's a little heavier thread.

Interviewer: Have you ever made the blankets? No. The blankets would require a large, loom.

Gladys Clark: Yes. The big Acadian looms. You could weave at least, for me, about 40 inches wide. They were. But you'd have to have a seam in the center of your blanket, blankets and even the sheets. You'd have to have a seam. Not my loom the loom that I have I could, thread to 32 inches wide, but I just have it thread 12 inches wide, because, all I can do is weave the placemats, napkins and table runners. I do have another loom at the house, which I weave the rag rugs. I have it threaded a little bit wider, and I use it to help a heavier thread than this.

Interviewer: And, you know, most of the weavers that you find in the state really are not folk weavers. Occasionally, they may have a mother that used to weave, but frequently they didn't learn from their mother. They might have gotten the interest from them. Most weavers date more from the 1920s. The Arts and Crafts movement that happened in the United States. . . The weavers are more contemporary-oriented, whereas Gladys is really, what we would call a true folk weaver in that, she's maintaining the old Acadian way of, the style and everything.

Gladys Clark: Just tabby. Just plain. Weave just over and under, no pattern work in it, right?

Interviewer: Right.

Gladys Clark: Well, I had an apprentice last year, Miss Bourque. Elaine Bourque. She wanted to. She knew a little spinning, but it was done differently. She was just learning, and she wanted to learn the way. The Acadian, the spin on the spindle instead of the flier. Different, different spinning wheel.

Interviewer: Also, Elaine's mother had been an Acadian weaver, but again, she wasn't interested in it when she was younger and when her mother could have taught her. So her mother passed away. And, when I found out about Elaine, I helped them get together, and I talked to Gladys, and I asked her if she thought this might be something she'd want to do. Because for several years, I've been wanting Gladys to have an apprentice. And I would gladly, help her find another one if she wanted to do it again. Because, again, this is an incredibly rare tradition. But Gladys has decided that she's going to make her napkins a little bit different. She's going to . . . you have, what, three, four white stripes in yours?

Gladys Clark: Yes. four white stripes.

Interviewer: And Elaine is going to put five those so that people can always tell the difference between Gladys’s and hers.
Gladys Clark: And we had a very good time. Elaine and I enjoyed the year that we worked together.
(Lightly edited for clarity)