- it's a CONCH (pronounced in the Keys - konk) SHELL.
The article says:
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — A Florida retiree has won the women's division in Key West's annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest — and accepted a marriage proposal from a fellow competitor.
Seventy-year-old Mary Lou Smith impressed the judges Saturday with long blasts on the fluted, pink-lined shell. And when 73-year-old Rick Race proposed on stage, she accepted by joining him in a joyous duet.
