Hear Hear - Welcome Lizabee, thanks for the input!
Great memories eh? I am still re-living all my childhood performances and trying to think which came first! Earlier when I posted this, I was going to say that my first folkie performance was 23rd July 1988, but that was of course the first time I played in the band in public. The first time I sang a folk song in public was around a year later, but maybe that's not true, for I am sure I have always sung traditional stuff with my family and friends at get togethers, but Wadebridge Folk Festival, Cornwall 1989 was my first in earnest as it were!
My Grandfather was half Irish and always played traditional music - on his fiddle, which I have inherited, being the only grandchild with an interest in music. He did I believe have the habbit of playing it like a ukelele, I sadly was too young to remember him clearly, though I do have some reel to rell recordings of him singing and playing
Potted history over!
Cheers, Lucy