My first scarecrow experience was as a kid. I visited a relative in the countryside and sneaked into their neighbor's farm where I rushed through a tight rows of 8-foot tall corn stalks to abruptly run right into the booger. I stumbled back and fell onto my butt in a muddy puddle, taking in the sweet smell of overripe corn around me and the scarecrow looking unaffected by my collision. The longer I studied it in the wind, the more its clothing fluttered, the more the crispy cornstalks shimmied in the breeze as if the dummy had somehow brought the whole field alive in an enthusiastic applause. I fled with much haste.
"Night of the Scarecrow"
I'm disturbed enough as a horror writer to be obsessed by scarecrows. The finest scarecrow maker in the world, I believe is Pumpkinrot. Each year this craftsman has a new themed one that just blows my mind. I always get my Halloween cards from his shop. This person seriously understands Halloween in a way that is deep, nostalgic, and truly autumn-driven. If he ran a cult, I'd be his first member.
I have several short stories involving scarecrows (one is in my recent book "Don't Go There! A Flash Horror Anthology") and I'm working on an over the top paranormal romance that involves a magical mountain and, of course, scarecrows aren't just still sentinels, they are animated by magic to guard the fields, pacing up and down the rows without fail, no matter the weather until wintertime when they rest upon their stakes.
"Worzel Gummidge"
I readily admit a bit of a fantasy involving roleplaying with a very creepy gunnysack faced scarecrow, right alongside my Michael Myers one, the pirate, the vampire, and the werewolf. I'm a bit of a freak, but I have a tendency to be what some might coin "counterphobic" as I tend to want to throw myself into anything that would unsettle me.
Why are scarecrows so freaky? Perhaps because they lack substance, but they have station. They comport themselves as if they are living by standing erect, but they lack the muscle power to truly move, except those freak times when the wind makes them pivot back and forth on their crosses as if they are wrestling to climb down and the cold breeze fills their shirt, making it puff up as if they're breathing....
"Scarecrow"
Yeah, scarecrows are freaky, even the friendly looking ones. They're as badass as country folk art can get and the ideal sentinels for overripe crops of corn bursting on their cobs like rows of rotten teeth, leaving behind the overly sweet scent of corn and wet earth and the distant scent of woodsmoke. They are the guardians of autumn.
They have my utter respect and fascination.