Being A Bad Influence

By Brent Olson

I was headed down the road with three grandchildren when we smelled that summertime gift of rural roads, a dead skunk.

Everyone made the appropriate noises, opened windows, and gagged a little. To change the mood I said, “Hey, let’s all sing that dead skunk song.”

“There is no dead skunk song, Papa.”

“I beg to differ,” I said. For some reason, I find my grandchildren don’t believe me as often as they should. I blame society today.

Granddaughter Two couldn’t find the song on my phone, so I had to pull over and take over the search. A couple minutes later, Loudon Wainright III sang:

“Crossin’ the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn’t see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are…”

I didn’t have time to teach them the whole song, but we’ll work on it more the next time they’re in the car, in anticipation of the next road trip they take with their parents.