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"Dead skunk in the middle of the road"

When I was 20 I entered a contest to draw a cartoon based on the 1972 song "Dead skunk in the middle of the road" by Loudon Wainright  111. The contest was put on by WDGY, the only rock & roll station we had. We were told to illustrate the song. I did a pretty detailed drawing of a lady driving her car off a cliff to avoid running over a flattened skunk, to which she replies "I nearly hit that skunk"! Her bald husband is peering over the window in terror, their cat has his claws in the guys head, hanging on for dear life. WDGY called to tell me I had won! The prize was a pair of airline tickets, and all expense paid trip to Little Rock Arkansas for the first annual international skunk festival. Don't know if they ever actually had it again. This was the first time my husband and I had ever flown. They put us up in a fancy hotel. The first night there was a party where I met Mark Lindsay of the rock band "Paul Revere & the Raiders", and had my photo taken with him. They were known for songs like "Kicks" and "Hungry".  We had a fancy dinner, I remembered being impressed that the waitress's call every one honey. We were taken on a tour of the city on a red English double decker party bus. From the time we got on the plane we were offered alcohol, I don't recall drinking any, MN drinking age was 21, but I sure could have!   We were only there for a weekend. The morning before we left we were suppose to meet Loudon but his plane was late so we never did. There were other contestant winners there from other states. We were suppose to judge a kids art competition of skunk art, but there was not enough time for it. At the festival they brought all the contests winners up on the stage, which was a big flatbed truck. As I looked out over the huge crowd I felt like a rock star, it was people as far as I could see! We were presented with silver loving trophies. After a quick peek at the live skunks on display we were rushed off to the airport. I was told that WDGY had continued to promote the contest for entries long after we had left MN. They also frequently played a song called "Oh Clair" by Gillbert O' Sullivan, after they announced I was the contest winner.  It was quite an adventure!

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1 Response to "Dead skunk in the middle of the road"

I remember that . We were all so proud of you. Still are!!


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