Last evening’s 7 to 9 pm Cedar Key Community Center event celebrated Cedar Key and its environs as a series crossroads in its past, its culture, and its people. Approximately 120 visitors sipped on coffee or tea and munched upon every kind of sweet imaginable as they walked about the center internalizing the artifacts, maps, photographs, and video presentations, all in place designed to evoke very personal reminiscing about Cedar Key.
The visitors walked through stations that echoed the Smithsonian’s Crossroads exhibit’s themes: Managing Change, Shaping the Land (here, working the waters), a Sense of Place, and Identity. Each station was replete with old black and white photos coupled with newer ones. Cedar Key’s history, culture, and people shone through. Before and after photographs of Tidewater Tours, the Island Place, the Richburg eatery, and others brought many a smile.
Videos continued the Crossroads themes. Anne Lindgren produced two, the first offering pictures of residents and visitors doing what Cedar Keyans do best: drinking coffee at 1842, petting dogs, enjoying the outside, and more. Her second video captured the meaningful buildings about town, from the Island Hotel to L&M Bar.
Commented Jan Stackhouse, “Amazing! Four or five generations are captured here!” Bill Heckler noted, “Fabulous, sweet! An unbelievable amount of work must have gone into this.” An upstate New York / Cedar Key woman was struck by the words on the “Sense of Place” photograph.
The piece de resistance was prefaced by a two-minute video entitled “Tin-Roof Shanties,” and produced by Anna White Hodges from the Cedar Key Historical Society. The song “Tin-Roof Shanties” was sung by Bertie Higgins. The words reflect Cedar Key’s heritage and warns of the imposition of more cement and concrete taking away our culture. Click here to hear Higgins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DVh0zzpIJ0
At approximately 7:45 pm, Vice-Mayor Sue Colson introduced the piece de resistance, a six-and-a-half-minute video production entitled “Cedar Key: City at the End of the Road.” Produced by Christopher Harris of Aqueuos Films in Orlando, Florida, thee piece captures the spirit of Cedar Key, its culture, and its people. View it by clicking the following link: https://vimeo.com/292205552
The video is narrated by many Cedar Keyans: Molly Jubitz, Vanessa Edmonds, Mike Hodges, Martin Kemp, Crystal Sharp, and more. Even more are pictured, among them: Katherine Dunlop, Heath Davis, and Brian Hancock.
“Cedar Key: City at the End of the Road “speaks strongly to the area’s resilience. Through its trials and tribulations, from net ban to aquaculture, from Storm of the Century to Hermine, from local science to the Nature Cost Biological Station, Cedar Keyans come to the aid of Cedar Keyans and remain resilient.
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