PHILLIPS – Kandi Conley and Sherry Gordon put up an orange pumpkin background, then set a witch on top of a hay bale. Fake spiders were attached to the hay as if crawling on it in a spider web.
Then out of the back of the truck came a skeleton walking stick with a black raven on top. Gordon secured the skeleton to the top of it as Conley secured a fake black cat with its mouth wide open, red tongue showing as it simulated a screech on top of a pumpkin. A big, gray plastic rat named Jane with its teeth bared was set in front as Conley fixed a plastic bone in its mouth.
Conley straightened out the green hair of Rachel the witch, and said she wished it would comb. But alas, it wouldn’t, and it remained scraggly just like what people expect a witch to look like. Conley plumped up the newspaper and trash bag stuffing beneath Rachel’s dress and stepped back as Gordon secured the hat on Rachel’s head.
The two women were preparing a display Friday for today’s 14th annual Scarecrow Reunion at the corner of Route 142 and Main Street.
They had already set up the display Wednesday but took it down during Thursday’s storm.
As the women finished up, Conley’s son, Casey Gould, 1, watched.
He wasn’t fazed by the scene before him, even when his mother brought him close to the witch and the rat.
They’re hoping the judges will think the scene is spooky enough to scare a crow, because that’s one of the criteria, along with creativity and time involved.
“It’s my first year living here, and I thought it was cute,” said Conley, formerly of Dixfield. “I never heard about a town doing this.”
“It’s good to see the community together and to get the children involved,” Gordon said. “It’s a family project.”
Already set up at the corner were four scarecrow children in a circle, a witch with a cauldron and broom, and a ghost blowing in the wind beside a witch.
Winona Davenport, Sharon and Dana Dudley and the Phillips True Value Hardware Store sponsor the event to benefit the Phillips Conservation Commission.
All displays have to be up before 10 a.m. today, when the judging begins.
By 10:30 a.m. there will be at least 100 people watching and waiting to see which displays take top honors, Davenport said Saturday. The scarecrows will stay up until Saturday, Oct. 15.
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