I can play at least a simple song (often improvised) on most any musical instrument, as long as it has strings and frets. I’m way too uncoordinated to manage a drum set, and the utter simplicity of piano keys are baffling. But strings and frets seem to make sense. And that’s just about it. Oh wait: a kazoo. I can play a kazoo.

If I remember right, it was my first instrument. Not including homemade bangy-things like aluminum pots and cardboard oatmeal containers, it was quite possibly my first real music generator.

And now, not including the homemade bangy-things, the old worn out guitar, the hand-me-down drum set, the full-scale electric keyboard, the microphone and amplifier; oh wait, it’s not even close. OK, it’s not my two-year-old’s first musical instrument, but he definitely plays it better than any of the others. He has several, five or six, all plastic.

Even if I was late for a job interview, I couldn’t drive past a guitar store. I know where every single one is south of Minneapolis and north of Mason City. I’m always looking for used, well-worn guitars. I usually don’t buy one, but I always try to buy something. I usually pick up a pack of strings so I always have extras.

Like I said already, five or six plastic kazoos. Every music store has a “candy bin” of plastic kazoos near the front counter. But few have the tin kazoos. Even fewer have more than one model of tin kazoo.

This one does.

And this one’s a gem. There aren’t many small-town music stores left. There aren’t many small town you-name-its left at all. Insert small-town in front of any business description, and it’s probably been closed for ten years. Somehow Waseca Music Co. has held on.

If you are traveling Hwy. 14 between Mankato and Rochester, don’t miss Waseca Music Co. The store is at 111 South State Street, just a half block south of the Hwy. 13 and 14 intersection.