FromtheEditor
It was just after sunset, and I had finished sending the paper to the printer for the week. I flipped open the lid of the trashcan and dropped our trash in for collection.
I looked down at my shoes to make sure they didn’t get dusty as I walked back to the door. As I slowly turned my gaze up, I was facing a dark figure sitting and staring at me.
“How many dang times am I going to get surprised by this scarecrow?!!,” I thought to myself after jumping back with wide eyes.
For several weeks, The Dublin Citizen had a visitor on a bench outside our front door. It was a scarecrow in business attire with a jack o’ lantern face and a derby hat holding a newspaper. (Wyndi nicknamed him Daniel.) We had put up the decoration as part of the Dublin Public Library’s scarecrow fundraiser held through the month of October.
The stuffed figures could be spotted at several businesses and homes around town. (My personal favorite is on N. Clinton where brave firefighter “S.Crow” is assisting a little old lady rescue a cat from a tree.)
There are two guarantees when you undertake an outdoor project involving decorations. Everyone helping has a different idea about the best way to put it together, and the weeks that follow will have the worst weather you’ve experienced all year.
As we wired in the broom handle that acted as our scarecrow’s support system, we could already feel heavy winds standing by to blow our newly made friend away.
Although the posterboardbacked newspaper didn’t survive two storms, our scarecrow managed to outlast them, consistently leaning back with his pumpkin grin, apparently having a good laugh at the local news.
Daniel seemed to have good spirits so we let it slide. What was harder to forgive was how everyone in the office managed to forget he was there, meaning that we all got “jump scare”moments from a pillow-stuffed businessman that we had put up ourselves and had been there for days and weeks.
Ironically, the birds that feed on the scattered seed in our parking lot never seemed fazed.
Last week, I disassembled our October pal, keeping a few pieces in case we need to bring him back next year. The rest I threw into the trash and as I turned around, there was nothing on the bench to make me leap back. So long, Daniel.
—Paul Gaudette can be reached at publisher@dublincitizen.com.