Other than fiddling with your toes or playing on the linoleum, what was your first instrument? I saved up my money and bought myself a $5 blue pear-shaped uke at the toy store around the corner from my house. Had a felt pick and a song book of "favorites" with uke chord diagrams. I think my folks must have thought it strange for an 8 year old to be wailing away on "Little Brown Jug". About the same time, the late 40s, a white haired street singer would come around every six months or so and play the plectrum banjo and sing arias and show tunes in front of the apartment house on the corner and then up my street. He ever stopped once and played just for us kids sitting on the curb. I think that sound and the sight of the banjo close-up is what led me to the banjo later in life.