Storybook Characters and Wistlestops

Last Saturday, I attended the Whistlestop Weekend in Meridian, Mississippi.  It was at the old Soulé

machine works factory.  I was amazed at all of the storybook characters come to life that I encountered on this trip.  There is one person in particular that I just can't erase the image of from my mind.  She was a lady advocating for Geography lessons in the schools of Mississippi.  She had eyes that were too small for her face - really too small for her face.  I know this sounds strange, but it is not something I commonly see.  She was wearing a blue hat with a small net, partial veil.  Would that be '40s?  And a dark, royal blue dress to match.  Perhaps, she was trying to look international.  But, I just kept thinking, I've seen her in a cartoon before.  Maybe, one of those odd ones from the U.K.  She could have been a toad.  She could have been the sister of the mean administrator from the Harry Potter books. 
I also noticed father and son who definitely had Hobbit in them. Their proportions were uniquely short and stout.
It was an odd festival.  There were a few different loosely related focuses:  Steam engines; calliopes and various accordions; a few random antique cars; antique tractors; and blacksmithing and former craft industries of the local area.

I was little disappointed that the steam engines were running for the sake of running but not actually doing anything.  I once went to the truck crops festival, and a man there had a steam engine processing sorghum and selling sorghum syrup.  I had a sample of the syrup, and it was delisioso!  At another event, there was an engine being used to make flour.  My mother and I were compelled to buy flour.  Of course, I also bought it because I had never seen red wheat before and found that intriguing.  Unfortunately, the muffins I made with the flour were not discernibly red when they came out of the oven.
To the designers out there, you would have had field day buying up the old industrial light fixtures and artifacts, if they were for sale . . .

Mold for the Keys to the Castle

Man Andiron

Cat Andiron

Owl Andiron