After retiring from a machine-repair business back in 1985, Vollis Simpson began constructing huge windmill-like structures from recycled machine parts. Despite his wife’s skepticism toward his project, the 87-year-old kept building. Now he’s garnered national attention for his collection of over 30 moving and spinning whirligigs standing at Windmill Farm in Lucama, North Carolina. From PBS’s Off the Map: Backyard Travelogue:
*For Vollis Simpson, whirligigs had long been a practical solution to everyday problems. Serving in Saipan in the Mariana Islands during World War II, Simpson built a whirligig to power a washing machine. Years later, back at home, he looked to whirligigs to power a heating system for his house. It was not until 1985 that Simpson began to appreciate whirligigs for their less-than utilitarian qualities. He began making whirligigs on his farm from cast-off machine parts simply to see how they would move in the wind. *
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