Upon the first sniff of the pungent stench eminating from the once-living skunk, Dad would burst into the old Loudon Wainright diddy “Dead Skunk.”

“You got yer/Dead skunk in the middle of the road.”

The stationwagon full of kids would jump in with three-part harmony as the formerly alive skunk appeared in the middle of the New York State Thruway. Roadkill at its finest, and usually was accompanied somewhere along the highway by many brave animals that tried unsuccessfully to beat a Mercedes across four lanes of traffic and into the Catskill Mountains.

So when A.J. showed up 30 minutes before Saturday’s LSU-Ole Miss football game for a barbecue — the first day of hunting season as well — all I could hear was Dad singing in the wagon.

A.J. began his tale: “I was supposed to meet my dad at 5:30; I woke up at 5:25. I got into the truck and sped off. I was close to the house when I rounded a curve. There was a big doe and a baby standing in the road.

“All I could do was lock the brakes.”

The pickup skidded and screeched. The big doe danced out of the way; junior never made it.

“I heard a thump,” said A.J., who got out, found the 40-pound deer lying still on the ground, not a splatter of blood present. “I picked it up and flung it into the back of the truck and went home. The hunt was over.”

And roadkill became the featured menu item.

A.J. helped slice and dice, then clean and marinate that roadkill with precision. By the middle of the 4th quarter of the LSU-Ole Miss game, a plate of meat, barely 12 hours since it took its last breath, sat on the counter. Two others beside this native New Yorker had never tried it either. I stared at the plateful of meat and pondered.

“What piece should I go after,” I enquired.

A.J. scanned the platter and pointed toward a silver-dollar-sized chunk of brown meat. “Take that one.”

I picked it up grinning.

In one side of my head, Dad was singing away. In the other half, Bambi-loving Mom scoured with disgust. I took a mighty bite and was blown away — tender … juicy … delicious!

I quickly reached for a second piece having finished one more endeavor I never believed possible during years of harmonizing to Loudon Wainright on the New York State Thruway.

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Sean P. Murphy is web editor. He can be reached at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com