ZELIENOPLE — Jan. 28 is National Kazoo Day, which may not mean a lot to most people.

But don’t get Betty Haughin, 100, started on the kazoo, or you may end up hearing every hit song from the early to mid-20th century.

Haughin, who lives independently in her Luther Court apartment on the Lutheran SeniorLife Passavant campus in Zelienople, may be the only centenarian within many miles who regularly plays with the toy she enjoyed as a child.

“Back then, they were wood,” Haughin said of kazoos of the 1920s and ’30s.

It doesn’t take much cajoling at all to get her to raise her modern, plastic version to her lips to honk out an impressive tune at any given moment.

“You don’t blow into it,” Haughin said. “You hum into it and go toot, toot, toot.”

While she has many, Haughin is especially proud of one kazoo she received from the ambassador of the Kazoo Museum & Factory in Beaufort, S.C.

The ambassador attached a lanyard to the kazoo so it can be played hands-free.

“You could play the drums or another instrument while you’re playing the kazoo,” Haughin said as she demonstrated by playing an invisible drum at the same time as her kazoo.

She keeps a sizable box of plastic kazoos in her apartment so she can share her love of the wacky instrument with anyone who comes to visit.

“My daughter-in-law orders them on Amazon,” Haughin said. “She orders them one day and they’re here the next! How do they do that?”

She enjoys sharing the colorful kazoos with people of all ages.

“I give one to everybody,” Haughin said. “Of course, they all start to blow, and say ‘It’s broken!’ I tell them, ‘You have to hum into it.’”

She can’t exactly explain why she has such a deep affinity for the little plastic instrument with the comical sound.

“It’s easy to play, inexpensive and fun,” Haughin said, “and it’s such a nice name to say too. Kazoo! It even sounds like fun.”

When she goes to a restaurant to enjoy a meal with friends or family, Haughin always takes a kazoo along in case the waitstaff begins singing “Happy Birthday” to a patron.

“I’ll be their kazoo accompaniment,” she said. “I take one everywhere I go.”

Asked to name a famous kazoo player, and Haughin is stumped.

“A lot of people have never heard of them,” she said.

Haughin’s penchant for playing is well-known among her neighbors at Luther Court, who enjoy singing or playing along with her.

Charleen Lippincott, who also lives in Luther Court, said she enjoys helping people, and heard a resident was in her late 90s when Lippincott moved to the building over two years ago.

“We got to be friends,” Lippincott said. “We have a great time.’

She is glad Haughin has such an unusual hobby, as opposed to knitting or stamp collecting.

“It’s really cool,” Lippincott said of Haughin’s kazoo playing. “She has a rhythm and can think of songs from way back when.”

“I’ll pay you later,” Haughin said of the compliment before the two burst into laughter.

Lippincott said there is a reason no residents ever bang on Haughin’s walls in an effort to get her to stop playing her kazoo.

“Everyone here is very friendly,” she said.

Haughin often plays “Name That Tune” with her friends and visitors by buzzing out the initial notes to a song, then waiting for someone to yell out the answer.

“Did I stump you?” Haughin asks mischievously if no answer is forthcoming.

She explained that she took piano lessons as a child growing up in Bellevue, Allegheny County.

Haughin later decided she wanted to play in a her high school orchestra, and chances of being accepted would be greater if she played an instrument that is not the lone version in the band.

“My father played violin, so I just took his,” she said.

She did not continue playing after high school, but she also didn’t discard her instrument.

“I made a planter out of my violin,” Haughin said.

Her late husband, Ken, also was a big fan of the kazoo.

“He had so much music in him, and he never took a lesson,” she said. “When he played the kazoo, he sounded like a whole orchestra.”

Haughin said her husband could imitate many regular instruments on his kazoo. She said the two frequently harmonized on their kazoos.

The couple had four sons, and only one of them is not a fan of the kazoo.

“When I start playing, he rolls his eyes,” Haughin said.

Another son honored his parents by including the kazoo into his wedding a few years ago. The bridal couple gave a kazoo to each guest and asked them to play along to a hymn the couple had chosen.

“Then everyone took their kazoo home,” Haughin said.

The spry and musical lady has no plans of slowing down on her kazoo hobby anytime soon.

“Thank goodness I have good lungs,” Haughin said. “They’ve lasted 100 years without any problems.

“I hope to play as long as I have breath.”