An Introduction- Write Us a Memory
by Suzanne Conrod

A feature of our new web site will be an ongoing column of no more than 500 words in length that will be written by rug hookers themselves to tell the story of memorable people or experiences in rug hooking that have helped or inspired them in their personal development as rug hookers .

Each column will run for a one week period, it will carry the writer’s by-line and will then be placed in our archives based on date of publication. All submissions will be eventually printed in a permanent memory book to be retained in the future Hooked Rug Museum of North America.

A picture or two is always welcome.. Quality of writing should not be a deterrent as we have capable writers available to dress up your submission if such is necessary. Please include a telephone number of e-mail so we can contact you should the need arise. Send your submissions to me at dornoc@eastlink.ca or Box 556, Chester, N.S. B0J 1J0

Rug Hooking is a personal thing and in the good old days was a popular social event in the lives of rural rug makers. A pot of tea was always available , steaming away on the old cast iron stove and when the “mat was in” ( an old saying when a fresh pattern had been drawn and laced into a hand-made frame, ready for action) women folk would arrive for rug making and a bit of gossip. It is my hope we can regain this historic gathering by sharing good stories about rug hookers we knew in days gone by, and through sharing of images from the past in a web-site forum.

Recapturing the memories of rug hooking is another way of preserving our heritage because much of history relates to the human aspects of involvement and inter-relationships. We have had experience with this approach in our “At Grandmother’s Knee “ program where we conducted interviews with 51 elderly participants and recorded their personal stories of how they learned to create floor mats in many unusual ways, as they were taught or told by long gone ancestors.Over the years we hope to have thousands of “down memory lane” stories that will give future researchers of the rug hooking art an insight into the thoughts and experiences of rug hookers of the past.