More Cigar box banjo and early Florida

This is Mae Newman of Palatka, playing her cigar box banjo.

Ernie Williams sent it to me and it is from the Florida Photo Archives. (not sure of the date)

Seems like cigar box banjos were a real tradition in early Florida.

I'm not suprised--there were cigar factories in the Tampa area very early on and folks traveled back and forth from Cuba freely before the sixties. I remember that my Dad (born in Florida in 1915) liked to go dancing when he was young and would travel to the larger cities in Florida to go dancing and also ride the ferry to Havana to dance the night away. :)