Chownings Tavern Brunswick Stew

[Richard Flanders]

Now coon, that's a different story. They actually make a very tasty stew. I came across a hardly damaged and still warm roadkill coon late one night while riding with a friend in her Corvair in about 1967. I took it home and practiced my taxidermy skills on it - remember the Northwestern School of Taxidermy ads in the comic books? I stuffed that coon up real nice and had it on the end of our dinner table watching us as we chowed down on the stew that my grandmother made of it - I swear that woman could make you like a stew made from gravel! It was very tasty, not at all gamey, and at some point my sister noted that it was good and asked what was in the stew - bad idea. I told her it was from the coon down at the other end of the table. She choked and jumped up and ran outside and threw up and was clearly done with coon stew - forever. An unforgettable true story that I still laugh like hell at and love telling after all these years.