Toward the end of his stint in the army, Mike North came back to Chicago on a weekend pass.
North huffed. He walked directly to her counter and paused a moment, trying to figure out how to break the ice. He grabbed a 3 Musketeers bar off the rack and put it on the counter. It was late and there wasn’t a line so he hung around and chatted for a few minutes. Finally he cut to the chase.
“I would like to talk to your daughter,” North said.
“Bebe picked me up at the airport and we been together ever since,” North says.
On our way, North follows a CTA bus, its rear end touting the Score. His mug and Jiggetts’s face each other. “Monsters of the Midday,” says the placard.
Bebe serves us hot chocolate in an eating area off the kitchen. The phone rings. It’s business, so Bebe takes the call. North watches her as she speaks.
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At the Edison Park Tap, North and his pals discuss his tiff with Bryan Cox. The Bears linebacker heard that North had criticized his play and on-field deportment. Cox told reporters he couldn’t be bothered with the likes of a guy who’d declared bankruptcy on his hot dog stands. North heard that and his hair stood on end. He told reporters he might sue Cox. “That’s the street kid in me,” North says. “I don’t know if I should sue him or forget it or go up to him and confront him. He’s a goof. He’s a discredit to his race. I mean it. He’s set his race back a hundred years. If it wasn’t for football, he’d be flippin’ burgers somewhere. What’s he got?”
