Windmills of your Mind

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“Hey, look! Windmills," shouted Emily as she bounced up and down in her seat and pointed out the bus window.

The Eiger family, Winston, Jennifer, and their young daughter Emily, were touring the Midlands. The tour bus arrived at Windmill Alley, so named by the Tourist Board since it was a mile long row of medieval windmills straddling the Ghrent Canal. The tour was a multi-cultural program sponsored by the Ministry of Magic.

Impressed with the view, Jennifer turned to her daughter, "Can you tell me why non-magical people built windmills?"

Emily scrunched her face and after a moment, shook her head, "no Mommy."

"Well, it gets very hot here in the summer and in the ancient times, there was no air conditioning. So the non-magical people living here built windmills to cool the farmers working in the fields. Windmills are giant fans," said Jennifer, nodding and thinking of her Non-Magical-People Anthropology training.

"Wow," replied Emily, eyes wide, mouth open with amazement.

"No, no, no, that is not so, at all," said Winston. "Windmills were built for a completely different reason."

"What, Daddy?"

"In days of old, non-magical people were trying to fly without a broom. They needed a device to test propellers. Windmills are airplane propeller testing stations!" declared Winston, the smug know-it-all wizard that he was.

The Tour Guide over hearing this conversation, cleared his throat with a loud, "ahhh-em."

Catching Emily's attention, the Guide, in his deep professorial voice, said to her, 
"Windmills were used by farmers to grind corn into meal and wheat into flour to make bread."

Both parents glared at the intruder. Jennifer's face softened into a smile, "maybe so, but we like our versions better."

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