Vuvazela

Any of you who have watched the Soccer World Cup matches are now familiar with the continual drone of thousands of vuvazela's [straight plastic trumpets] a sound heard without pause throughout the games.

Today I got a picture from a former student from my Peace Corps days school in Swaziland. There he is, second from right, with friends and armed with their vuvazelas.

Attachment 6443

Vuvazela has become an international word overnight and will long be remembered as the distinctive sound that sets this world cup apart from the others.

Now I have a real life ‘old school’ vuvazela story for you. They appeared here decades ago and were soon largely banned at sporting events. I might have had a tiny role in that.

While in university, I had one of the first ones at my school [I think we called them blasters] and took it to a basketball game. The game went into overtime with our team ahead by a point with a few seconds left but the other team had the ball with a chance to score and win. I happened to blow my vuvazela, for no particular reason, which also happened to sound very much like the period-ending horn.

The visiting team thought the game had ended, stopped playing, time ran out and the period-ending horn blew a few seconds later leaving them confused, upset and protesting. I and my vuvazela got kicked out but our team won. My university banned vuvazelas after that game.

that is a great story,,,lol

Quote:

---

Now I have a real life ‘old school’ vuvazela story for you. They appeared here decades ago and were soon largely banned at sporting events.

---

Lowell,

I think I had one in the late 60's. I think we just called them horns, dont remember them being banned, but they were just noisemakers. Dont even know what happened to mine.

Love the story Lowell, but those things have made the games almost unbearable to listen to.

I now watch the games with the sound off because you can't hear the commentators anyway. Beats that annoying buzzing sound or whatever the hell it is.

I think the horns we had here were longer in length and had a deeper sound, not as high pitched as the ones in South Africa. I remember people bringing them to my hockey games in the seventies. The sound doesn't bother me nearly as much as the canned music thay play every play stoppage at the Joe for Wings games. Where can I buy a vuvazela besides online? Anybody local selling them?