CJ Woods III’s Story Archive

The Hanover Hurricanes

December 6, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

“Imani’s practice is 6:30 to 8:00.” The Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving, my daughter called to reiterate what she had told me the night before about my granddaughter’s soccer practice. I was visiting in New Jersey and my grandbeauties’ parents were at work, comfortable with leaving the septuagenarian to shuttle the … Read More

Walking on Purpose

November 29, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

The white car cruised to a halt near me and the driver’s side window slid down. The man in the car asked me, “Do you want a ride?” I paused on my walk up the slight hill leading from my daughter’s apartment complex and declined her neighbor’s offer. “Thanks, but … Read More

Thankful

November 22, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

The woman called out to me as I passed her house, rushed down her steps and came to the fence that surrounded her front yard. “I meant to tell you when I saw you the other day: You look good with the white in your (goatee).” I was startled, then … Read More

Pram Problems

November 15, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

The gray car rushed northward on Arlington street toward the red light at Washington; the driver of the gray car poked its snout into the eastbound lane, looking to make a right turn on red. The woman driving the gray car snapped her head to the left, westward, looking for … Read More

The Divisions

November 8, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

As my mother clawed her way from welfare to nursing, she dragged me along with her, and when she sensed that her young teen might need more structure and guidance than she could give him, she asked the woman whose house she cleaned to intercede on my behalf. The timeline … Read More