Scarecrows were the subject of the program presented to the September Garden Club meeting by club president Nancy Swafford.The evolution of scarecrows, the tall ungainly creatures created to keep birds from destroying crops, began with the ancient Greeks and Romans and extended until fairly recently in agricultural communities and vegetable gardens of the United States. However, today they are rarely seen in farmers’ fields due to advances in audio devices which create sounds to accomplish the deterrent in larger farming operations and the use of metallic strips in smaller spaces.Today scarecrows are primarily a decorative item often found as friendly, attractive additions to autumn displays.They have been the subject of classic literature such as Nathanial Hawthorne’s eerie morality tale, “Feathertop,” and characters in children’s stories like L.Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz.”Swafford highlighted her presentation with photos and a story of weirdly scary, horror-inducing scarecrows designed to frighten humans instead of crows. They are the creation of an unknown artist living in rural Pennsylvania who calls himself Pumpkin Rot after the first scarecrow he designed for an annual scarecrow competition at Peddler’s Village in Lahaeka, Pennsylvania.