Scarecrow Tales

By CYNTHIA REARDON PHILLIPS
GOSHEN — On Saturday, Oct. 20 at 10:30 a.m. the Olive Pettis Memorial Library in Goshen will host its annual Scarecrow Building Social. This is a great family event when everyone gets to be creative. The bibrary provides the wood framework and some donated clothing to be used for costuming your scarecrow but you may want to bring your own special character touches. You can even build your scarecrow at home and bring the completed project to the library the day of the social and they’ll erect it for you on the lawn with one of the provided wood frames — just let them know ahead so you can reserve a frame. This year the theme is story-book characters. Library Scarecrows from past years have been as diverse as The Three Little Pigs, Miss Muffet, Minions, Ursula the Sea Witch, the Sugarplum Fairy and Belle from the Beauty and the Beast.

As a subject in books, the scarecrow runs the gamut from charming kid-reads: Tim Preston’s “The Lonely Scarecrow,” “The Scarecrow” by Cynthia Rylant, “The Little Scarecrow Boy” by Margaret Wise Brown, and “Otis and the Scarecrow” by Loren Long. For older kids, some slightly darker stuff: “The Scarecrow and His Servant” by Philip Pullman, R.L. Stine’s “The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight” and the timely, creepy but not gory Scottish Children’s Book Award winner “Scarecrow” by Danny Weston.

While its symbolism is universal, historically scarecrows were nothing like the now familiar straw-stuffed icon of Halloween. Used to protect crops from animal scavengers, scarecrows were sometimes topped with an animal skull or rotting produce. They were placed in fields in the spring and later were burned after the autumn harvest in celebration, their ashes returning nutrients of potassium and nitrogen to the soil.

In Great Britain they are known as hodmedods and hay-man or bodach-rocais (old man of the rooks). To the Bengali the scarecrow is a kaktadua, straska to the Czech, to Russians, pugalo and the German American immigrant farmers called them bootzamon, which eventually became bogeyman. Native American tribes across North America used live scarecrows or bird-scarers, usually adult men. In Georgia, Creek Indian families moved into huts in their corn fields to protect their crops during the growing season. In the Southwest, Zuni children had contests to see who could become the scariest scarecrow.

Whether you build a scary scarecrow or a charming friend of the field, engage your creativity to help erect a slew of story-time scarecrows to celebrate the season. Who will you build this year — Pooh Bear, Coco, Willy Wonka? The list is almost endless. So dress appropriately for autumn and for working with straw and markers, bring your kids and their friends for the fun and silliness — the library trustees provide cider and donuts to keep you energized.

Weather permitting the scarecrows are built on the lawn between the library and the Goshen Town Hall. In the event of rain, construction will be in the town hall. For more information, to request a hold on a frame or to just let them know you’ll be participating, call the library at 863-6921 or check them out on Facebook.