The Guys in the Gang
(And Other Stories)
by
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...we had a big party planned with some thirty people expected. In the rush to get ready we forgot about Oley (the monkey). Just before the guests were to arrive, Bob Arber said, "The monkey's still out." We didn't have time to go through the ritual of catching him so I lured him to the door of my bedroom and threw a grape into it. He flew after it and I closed the door. The party was a great success...when I went to bed many hours later, Oley was up on my curtain rod sound asleep. I got into bed and put my head on the pillow. It was soaked. Oley had pissed on it, getting his revenge, I guessed...for missing the party. I threw the pillow on the floor and went to sleep. I slept without a pillow for a week until one afternoon in the cafeteria I overheard a guy at the next table say, "Did you hear what Eddie Christie did to Joyce?" He said...during it (the party) Eddie snuck into my bedroom and poured a glass of water on my pillow. "Joyce thought the monkey pissed on it. Eddie said he's been sleeping without a pillow ever since."
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About the Book
An Irish Catholic neighborhood of the 1960s on Chicago’s Southside that nurtured camaraderie, religion and racial fury; the frequently illegal antics of teenaged boys; the broadening experiences of college and the Army; an assortment of jobs from brutally boring factory work, to business in foreign embassies, to fighting fires; people met and befriended from the super rich to inept Korean golfers who feared tigers; religion, and how confusing it can be.
About the Author
James T. Joyce (Carpenter Street) is the retired commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department. Throughout a thirty nine- year career, he held every rank in the department.
James T. Joyce (Ada Street) was born and raised in Chicago and then moved away. He is a psychoanalyst, a newspaper columnist, an author, and an international business owner.