CJ Woods III’s Story Archive

Coffee, a Sandwich and Kindness

March 3, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

I walked into the coffee shop and stood at the counter, scanning the chalked menu. I asked the barista for an “Americano,” a beverage that I’d had before, and in a bright, challenging voice, she asked me, “How adventurous are you?” The challenge amused me, and when she finished listing … Read More

The Magical Time

February 25, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

Six musicians sit around a table in comfortable conversation. One of them, a fiddler, sits beneath a fixture shaped like an old-time oil lantern and the weak light from it glows in reflection from her white-blond hair. Soon, a brush-fire of delight is struck, plucked from the strings of a … Read More

The Wedding Singer

February 18, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

“Do you still sing?” Bobbi Munholland posed that question to me when I saw her for the first time since 1993. We were at a reunion of former L.S. Ayres advertising department employees, held at the Benton House. “Oh, yes,” I told her and noodled out a few notes of … Read More

Social Literacy

February 11, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

I saw a TV advertisement with this text: “More then (sic) free prescriptions;” another ad’s text touted “signiture (sic) tacos.” A large audience of television viewers were treated to advertisements with gross errors; the first used an adverb in the place of a preposition and the second misspelled “signature.” Where … Read More

Jazz and Pool

February 4, 2016 | by CJ Woods III

I was sitting in the Coal Yard Coffee Company bobbing my head to the bump of the upright bass when a man approached me and said, “You shoot pool? Your hat…” I looked up, surprised, then took off my hat: It was not the black hat I thought I had … Read More