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Family & Education

The joy of an inherited toy

Sometimes the best playthings are old and battered, says Amy Schreibman Walter

December 11, 2020 13:55
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By

Amy Schreibman Walter ,

Amy Shreibman Walter

2 min read

Our baby son has a favourite toy: it’s a wooden pull-along xylophone. Purchased by his grandmother back in 1974, in a department store in Pretoria, South Africa, the toy is older than I am.

After its first round of use by my sister -in -law and my husband when they were babies, the xylophone lived in the garage of my in-laws for four decades. A few times a year it was taken out of storage and played with by my sister -in-law’s children (now teenagers), before only recently finding a new home here in England.

A few unidentifiable marks on the side of the xylophone provide the only visual clue of its middle-aged status. Having survived almost four decades, a cross-continental move and six children banging it and dragging it this way and that way along the floor, the xylophone has proven itself to be a gem. I have to say, I find its longevity rather wonderful.

You can buy a new version of the xylophone, but it’s plastic, not wood, and the pull-along cord is a bit too short for the toy to really be pulled along. You can still purchase the wood/metal version on eBay, though, because brilliant toys will never go out of fashion, even as they compete with super-slick plastic updated versions.