During the last weekend of September, early October, my adopted home of Meridian, Idaho holds its annual Scarecrow festival on a couple of blocks of Downtown Meridian. Many businesses and residences of this small town deck their porches, yards, and storefronts with scarecrows that fit the theme of the year. 2005's Scarecrow theme was The Three Little Pigs. My favorite scarecrows was a display at an antiques shop that showed the end of the story with the pigs in the "Big Bad Wolf" in a cement mixer. What is that, "The Sopranos edition of the Three Pigs!," I thought.
The Meridian Scarecrow Festival is catered mostly to young children, but there are many crafts and business booths for us adults to peruse. My friend Leslie and I spent most of the time checking out the many booths along the two-block area. Leslie picked up three free gun locks for her daughter from the Meridian Police Department booth that was emphasizing gun safety around children. Leslie and I sampled some nuts and gelato from a couple of food booths. We really enjoyed an artist who made sculptures from barbed wire. She was very gracious when we complimented her on her work and my knowledge of dogs when I complimented her on her Greyhound sculpture.
.jpg)
This year, the kids had a climbing wall to burn off their excess energy. It was for adults, too, but I saw all kids having a ball bouncing on the super trampoline and climbing the wall. Between Leslie's bad heart and my cranky back, it wasn't advisable for us to try the wall, but it was fun to watch!
Many other activities happen at the Scarecrow Festival but time and our work schedules kept us from seeing them, but the festival is well worth a couple of hours of your time if you are in the Meridian area.