True Gris

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True Gris
Is it time to stop tooting?

Is it time to stop tooting?

Macon's latest failed attempt at kazoo record may signal it's time to move on

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Ed Grisamore
Apr 02, 2025
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Is it time to stop tooting?
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(Photo courtesy of The Macon Melody)

Chattanooga is the home of moon pies, but my guess is the Chatts don’t go around trying to break records for the world’s largest buffet line of graham crackers and marshmallows.

There is a festival for gnats in Camilla every May, but they don’t bring in an adjudicator from Guinness to do an official gnat count for the record books.

So why does Macon, the acknowledged birthplace of the kazoo, keep embarrassing itself by trying to break the record for the world’s largest kazoo band?

I have championed the three attempts over the past 18 years. Now I have to wonder if it’s time to just let it rest in peace. Last week’s low turnout at the Atrium Amphitheater was – pardon the pun – a blow to our ego.

Maybe we should stop beating ourselves up with a 5-inch plastic wind instrument and move on.

Two weeks ago, our community was lamenting the fact that only 6,250 (5.2 percent) of the county’s registered voters showed up at the polls to vote on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

Then, on a fun and festive sun-kissed Friday afternoon in the throes of Macon’s largest annual event – the Cherry Blossom Festival – only 1,780 people came in and took a seat.

So, more people turned out to vote for a tax than to take a shot at being part of what could have been a historic day.

That wasn’t even as many as the 2,002 who tried to set the record in September 2007 at Luther Williams Field.

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