Eden

As the self-proclaimed “Garden Spot of New York State,” Eden, just south of Hamburg on Route 62, is a pristine small town surrounded by farm country. Downtown stands the Original American Kazoo Company: Museum, Gift Shop, Factory (8703 S. Main St., near 1st St., 716/992-3960, www.edenkazoo.com [1], 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Sun.). Established in 1916, the Original is now the only metal kazoo factory in the world. The company paid $5,000 for its first kazoo patent and still manufactures kazoos the way it always has, using die presses and sheet metal.

On display is a wooden kazoo, similar to its African prototype, and liquor-bottle-shaped kazoos made to celebrate the end of Prohibition. The record for the most kazoos ever played at one time was set in Rochester [2] on January 2, 1986, when 54,500 kazoo-ists performed.