Well today and tomorrow we are waiting here in New England on an "Arctic Blast" to blow through so reading Negril.com (Thanks Rob) warms me up from the inside out.

I was lucky over my early visits to Jamaica to buy souvenirs that were definitely home made (Jamaican) that I still have including some palm woven baskets, hats, black coral jewelry (before it was protected) as well as other items that I knew benefited the artist. Perhaps in the cities at that time (MoBay, Kingston) there were off shore made products but I can not remember many. There was a guy in Negril that was a wood carver named Sammy who has a stall by the bridge at what at that time was where the craft shops were set up. He was a very talented carver / artist (if he is still around would be in his mid 70's) who was a soft seller who would invite you in for a look, offer a puff and not be up tight if you did not buy. He carved the big African (Rasta) themed face and would finish it with shoe polish for colors. Very nice work. Back in those days US Customs were very suspicious of the large and heavy carvings coming in from JA. A big score in those days for me were 45's that were current hits in JA that rarely made it to the States. I still have stacks of them, bought in Sav and Kingston for like a buck USD. Blue mountain coffee and Appleton rum were rare in the US too.

Enjoy your day, week, life,... wherever you are....