We started our day Wednesday by visiting the Whirligig Park in Wilson – about half an hour from Smithfield, where we were staying. It really was pretty incredible. There were, I think, 30 of these windmill sized whirligigs, built by Vollis Simpson – a machinist there in town – after he retired. He had them installed around his pond, but after he died, so they wouldn’t fall into disrepair, the town built a park just for them. It was the coolest thing. I hate that you can’t see them all spinning like crazy in this still picture. Just very cool.
After picnicking there in the park we spent the afternoon at the Country Doctor Museum, also in Wilson. It was very, very interesting and very, very well done. These are old prescriptions and medicines from the 1890’s – those are the actual pills that were originally in those containers. The guide also showed us how they made pills back in that era. Just so interesting.
There was also a carriage house holding different wagons and cars used by country doctors in different eras from that area. I really would love to go back – we didn’t have nearly enough time to really take everything in.
