a FRENCH MUSIC article

Cultures of Acadiana
a look at the French, Cajun, Creole, and Native American cultures of south Louisiana
(a project of Carencro High School - 721 West Butcher Switch Road, Lafayette, LA  70507)

Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, December 29, 1998

Clark and Duhon began Playing together in 1920s

by Jim Bradshaw

Octa Clark was born and raised near the Judice community in Lafayette Parish. Members of his mother's family, particularly, played musical instruments including the guitar, fiddle and accordion. He learned to play the accordion from relatives and neighbors and very soon was playing in house dances and dance halls around the neighborhood.

By the middle 1920s, Clark was already a well-established musician. In 1928, he heard that Alcide Duhon's son, Hector, was playing the fiddle, and his cousin, Jesse, the guitar. He asked them to join up with them thus beginning the musical association that would last the rest of their lives.

Hector Duhon also came from a long line of musicians. His grandfather, Valentin (sic) Duhon loved to play the fiddle and his father played the accordion.

Duhon told Barry Ancelet:

When I quit school I was in the eighth grade. That was a mistake, I guess. Our schoolteacher didn't want us to speak French even on the school grounds. He caught me speaking French and gave me a thousand lines to write: "I will not speak French on the school grounds." I got mad and quit school. My late father gave me five acres of land to plant cotton. But I hired a man. I paid him two dollars a week to work my crop. In those days, two dollars a week was big money. That was in the Depression. A fellow went to the dance often with no more than ten or fifteen cents in his pockets. If he had twenty-five cents, he was loaded. We charged twenty cents for admission. Lots of times we played for the gate, and some people we knew didn't have enough money to come in, so we would make a sign to the one collecting money to let him in for whatever he had. Then, there was usually ten cents for "treat your lady." Often a fellow didn't have ten cents to pay a drink for his lady, so when they called out, "Treat your lady!" he would sneak outside. Things were rough in those days.

In the 1930s, when the accordion fell out of fashion, Octa Clark did not play as often. Hector and Jesse formed a string band known as the Dixie Ramblers. Along with the Hackberry Ramblers, they were among the first to experiment with early sound systems, and also with new tunes from swing, country, and popular music that they heard on the radio.

Then, with the death of his father in 1936, Hector gave up music completely to take over his father's business and raise his own family. His work as a trucker and as an appliance service man kept him on the road for more than 30 years.

Octa Clark and Hector Duhon were reunited again in the 1950s, playing with Hector's sons Bessyl and R.L.

Octa Clark died on Sept. 12, 1998.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).