My Xylophone, a Gift of Love

When we are children, I think we sometimes miss acts of love shown in our behalf.  I came across one such thing recently.

At sometime I was regifted with a childhood toy.  I received it the first time as a small child, and again as an adult when my mother was giving away some of her possessions.  It was just a little xylophone which came with a booklet containing the directions for playing a few simple songs.  The little booklet has been gone for years, but recently a piece of paper appeared.  It was probably made about 60 years ago by a loving mother who knew I would enjoy having some familiar songs to play which were not in the little booklet.  The xylophone had colored keys, so my mother had carefully found crayons to match each of the keys and then had colored papers to tell me which notes to play for songs I knew and loved.  Sadly, most of the papers are long gone, but "The First Noel" and "Oh, Hush Thee My Baby" still exist.

The strips of felt which held the keys off the wood wore out and were carefully replaced.  I loved this toy as a child and am happy to have it again today for my grandchildren to play with.  Perhaps I should get out the crayons and do some more pages of music for them.