NATIONAL KAZOO
DAY,
(NEARLY ANNUAL MESSAGE FROM BARBARA STEWART)
-- For immediate release,
January 2003 --
My fellow
kazooists, greetings for National Kazoo Day! It is celebrated on or about the
last Thursday in January -- or some other time at the convenience of the
kazooist. As stated by Founder (Chaplain) Willard Rahn of the Homewood
Retirement Home in
As acknowledged world authority on kazooing, I have been asked to deliver
the yearly inspirational message, as I have done nearly annually (except for
some years when I forgot) ever since Chaplain Rahn and the Joyful Noise Kazoo
Band originated National Kazoo Day in 1983 or so.
NATIONAL KAZOO
DAY MESSAGE
On this
day, I urge you to band together for more perfect harmony and vocalize your
support of the kazoo as national instrument -- to keep
For the last 20 or 30 years or so, this campaign for national instrument
status has been in a stage described by onlookers as “dormancy”. Now, fellow kazooists, is the time to
raise your voices to the cause! We have a national bird, a national song – and a
national debt! Why not make the kazoo the national instrument? Don’t call us…write your Senator or
Congressman…
TRUE ORIGINS OF NATIONAL KAZOO DAY
For those of you who have been too busy kazooing to keep up on your
history either through Kazoo U. extension courses; the How To Kazoo textbook (15th
printing,Workman Publishing); or How to
Kazoo Self-Instructional tapes -- here is the correct history of
National Kazoo Day.
In 1983,
while browsing through Readers
Digest, Chaplain Willard Rahn saw a note on National Tuba Day. If tubas, why
not kazoos? Chaplain Rahn and the Joyful Noise Kazoo Band at the Leader Nursing
Home in
Unfortunately
the oldest kazoo band in the world (average age 88.6666) initially had some
difficulty making their voices heard, and they enlisted my assistance to
reach important ears. I
wisely referred them to Associated Press, which had no hearing problem
whatsoever -- and the rest is kazoo history.
Led in their campaign by Chaplain Willard Rahn, the Joyful Noise Kazoo
Band marched triumphantly though red tape, as National Kazoo Day was officially
established on or about the fourth Thursday in January. Ask not what you can
kazoo for your country!
UPDATE
Unfortunately, Chase’s
Calendar (McGraw Hill) no longer lists National Kazoo Day, so word is passed
on by oral tradition. It lives on in the hearts and minds of all loyal
kazooists, who hand down the culture to future generations.
KAZOO TWO© PUBLICATION
Although there is a manuscript for Kazoo Two: Banding
Together for More Perfect Harmony, so far no public
outcry for this band method book has reached the ears (tin) of
publishers. However, the individual method book, How to Kazoo (Workman Publishing) is in
its 15th printing this year.
BARBARA STEWART KAZOO PRODUCT LINE™
Rumors of impending announcement of a Barbara Stewart Kazoo Product Line™ are
so far unsubstantiated.
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
Chaplain Rahn
has moved on to another post at the Homewood Retirement Home in
Chaplain Rahn himself is now emeritus Band Leader. However, he assures me
his heart is forever with the Joyful Noise kazooists. We join him and them in
raising our voices on the National
Kazoo Day of our choice.
©2003 Barbara Stewart
Author of How To Kazoo,
as well as Kazoo Keeper of Kazoophony™
(the world’s largest and currently most tacit kazoo quartet)