WHIRLIGIGS

The ultimate “fix-it man” builds a mechanical, whimsical windmill farm.

As a child in North Carolina, Vollis Simpson (1919-2013) “was fixing things before he could read.” He joined the Army during World War II and created a wind-powered washing machine with parts from a B-29 bomber. Once home, he ran a machine-repair shop, where he continued to tinker into his 60s. After he closed the shop, a dream inspired him to create a series of unusual mechanical windmills using scrap metal, gears, and chains—towers that “turned and whizzed.” Vollis constructed animals, airplanes, and guitar players to inhabit his towers, using junk like bike wheels, broken silverware, mirrors, and chimes. His colorful machines—whirligigs—attracted tourists and schoolchildren, and when Simpson’s health prevented him from maintaining his “noisemaking mechanical marvels,” they were moved to different sites, including the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Weatherford conveys the joyful obsession and dedication that fueled Simpson’s creative endeavors. Fotheringham’s cheerful, cartoonish illustrations capture the energy of Simpson’s work, with busy images piling one on top of the other, replicating pinwheel shapes, fast-moving action lines and dots, and splashes of onomatopoeic words like thud, thonk, and boing, boing. Today, according to Weatherford’s author note, Simpson’s whirligigs sit in a North Carolina park dedicated to his work. Simpson is white; other characters are pictured with a variety of skin tones.

This illuminating biography of a mechanic-turned-folk-artist brings his whirligigs to clanking, stirring life.