I recently rediscovered a remarkable repurposed “music device” for those long road trips.

I can only take so many hours behind the wheel on those monotonous miles of interminable highway, even with all the texting, tweeting, and Facebook postings.

 

(Don’t worry, fellow road warriors…I have the car safely set on cruise control, with BOTH knees on the steering wheel.)

 

We were returning from a wedding worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, and while the wife-person was semi-dozing over in the passenger seat, I had just finished a small snack-sized box of raisins, as much for a hoped sugar rush to alleviate road lethargy as to ameliorate hunger.

 

As I drove down the highway fidgeting with the empty box, from somewhere deep in the recesses of my primordial male mind, I recalled how I used to be able to coax a cacophony of interesting sounds by simply blowing into one end of the open, empty raisin box, while gently squeezing the other end.        

 

As I reacquainted myself with the narrow range of random, somewhat screeching sounds possible by blowing into an empty snack box, the wife-person shot me an extremely annoyed glance while claiming,

“That must be a guy thing.”

 

It got me to wondering, was this a lost art from my youth, back in the days when radios had tubes and the telephones were wired to the wall?

 

And was it only something that a mindless male can muster?

 

Au contraire, mon amie!

With only a quick Google gander, I found a plethora of links to raisin box kazoos, including the YouTube clip below, of someone neither male, nor ancient, and who is clearly pleased with herself in the squeaks and sounds she is able to produce.

 

 

I will admit, whether anyone might construe those sounds as musical is somewhat subjective. But, I suggest there are more of you who—at least if under oath—would admit using a tiny trash-bound cardboard box as a kazoo.

 

Whether you would do it where it might be at least a little annoying to those within earshot, well that might, in fact, be a “guy thing.”