Saturday, September 14, 2013

Music Box

I just remembered this music box I used to have. I had it from the time of childhood that memory is mythic and symbolic and not literal and factual memory, so I have no idea how I came about this music box or when. And it was this small wooden box with a long extended handle, and it had a crank, and when you cranked it, it played the theme from Love Story. Which seems kind of random for a childrens toy, in retrospect. But the coolest thing was, it had a clear plastic window covering the machinery on the inside, so as you turned the crank you could see the gears turn. There was a little cylinder with little braille bumps around it enmeshed with this rake-like instrument with many tines, and as the cylinder revolved the bumps plucked the tines and made music, note by note. I would crank it slowly and watch the cylinder painstakingly move around, how the bumps on it would gently lift the keys of the instrument up, up, up, and then continue to turn away and the key would plink back down and make a distinctive tone. A moment later another one gets hooked. And then spin it faster and hear the individual plinks blend into a melodious lullaby, the cylinder spinning around the keys and making them move like a player piano in a cinematic saloon. I had it for years and I loved it. Even into early adulthood I held on to it as a rare and precious talisman of my childhood. Until today I haven't thought about it in years, years, and I have no idea where it is now. I have no idea of how I lost it.

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