Friday Funnies

The past couple of Friday Funnies posts featured scarecrows in the downtown Nashua, NH area. On a couple of recent weekend road trips, we found some in a couple of NH towns. 

These few displays along in Wilton, NH, were not as numerous as here in Nashua, but they were quite outstanding. See if you don't agree.

Like many other New England towns, Wilton is a traditional, historic small town. Its Main Street is home to artists, small shops, restaurants, the Wilton Public Library and the historic Town Hall and Theater.

Formidophobia is the fear of scarecrows or people dressed as scarecrows.

Scarecrows have been in existence for over 3,000 years and were originally intended to do what their name suggests, to scare off crows and other birds that might ruin a farmer’s crops. In the Middle Ages, Europeans believed scarecrows had special powers.

About 2,500 B.C., Greek farmers carved wooden scarecrows in the image of Priapus, the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, creating a scarecrow that was supposedly ugly enough to scare the birds away from their vineyards, ensuring a good harvest.

The scarecrows on display in Jaffrey, NH, were far less ominous. Jaffrey, NH, is the only geographical place in the world with that name.These were my two favorites here.

Jaffrey, NH, is home to one of New England's most famous unsolved murders, the death of Dr. William Dean, 63, who was murdered in August 1918. His body was found in a rainwater cistern some 200 yards from the house where he lived in with his wife, Mary. His arms and legs were bound and a rope was tied around his neck. Amateur and professional sleuths have tried to solve the mystery of who killed William Dean, without success. 

Jaffrey, NH, is the only geographical site in the world with that name. It's named after Masonic proprietor George Jaffrey, from Portsmouth, NH, who never visited the wilderness land in which he had invested.

Egyptians used the scarecrows to protect their vast wheat fields along the Nile River from flocks of quail. Their version of the scarecrow was a wooden frame covered with nets. Farmers would hide in the fields and when the quail approached would scare them into the nets. This not only saved their crops from devastation, but caught quail for dinner.

Halloween is this weekend so these are the not-so-final scarecrow postings. There will be a short update after voting results are announced for the 2021 Downtown Nashua Scarecrows.

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

Hope you all get treats with no tricks