Stories and Tales

"The summer of 1963 The Centurys went to Chicago. One our best pals and TAK drinking buddies, Chip Stokes got us a job at Club Living in Mt. Prospect just south of Chicago. It was a huge living complex with three story apartments, indoor pool, sauna and complete with its own bar and night club. Because it was very close to O'Hare International Airport the complex was almost completely full of airline stewardesses. In those days the "stews" had to look like Rachel Welch or Brigitte Bardot lest they be grounded for excess baggage. Well, you get the picture, it was our job during the day to perform unspeakable labor driving the lawn tractor, hosing down the pool/sauna area or doing minor repairs to the club if any damage occurred the night before. For this we had our own three level townhouse plus a modest wage and run of the place. At night we were the house band reveling in a sea of airborn babeage while coaxing drinks from a thoroughly saturated crowd. We soon learned that because of airline scheduling, it was possible to have more than one girlfriend. Wink, however pushed the envelope by juggling three until a glitch caused overlap. The seriousness of this was noted when Tony and I found girl #3 in the basement bedroom, completely inebriated and totally disrobed on Wink's bed, with he and Girl#1 expected any minute. Getting no cooperation from girl #3, Tony and I did the only decent thing we could. We rolled her up in the bed spread like a big tamale, each grabbing one end and proceeded to carry her hammock style back to her apartment just down the street. However it seems that the motion upset her tummy and by the time we reached her door , we had some explaining to do. Finding that impossible we beat a hasty retreat and took heed of the perils of over scheduling.

The music in Chicago at that time was amazing. Just before the Beatles, R&B was at a peak and the top band around was Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Jenny, Jenny, Jenny and Devil with the Blue Dress On was hot. We did some work downtown where they played at a place called the Cellar also with the Shadows of Night. Blues was king.

The people up there were obsessed with mooning. If you caught somebody at a window, that was called a pressed ham, behind a screen was called a grilled ham and modesty prevents me from describing the winking red eye.

Chicago was ultimately cool and Mr. Stokes has my undying gratitude wherever you are. Also, hi to Rene Johnson the grossest girl in thr world, expletives unlimited."

_Will Bellamy, April 2002