CJ Woods III’s Story Archive

Coffee With a Cop

March 1, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

“Not gonna be much criminal activity around here,” I muttered to myself as I gingerly maneuvered my car into a parking space between two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department cruisers. I had already passed about a half-dozen of the white patrol cars on East Washington Street, Johnson Avenue and Ritter. I … Read More

Don’t Touch Anything

February 22, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

“What are you allowed to touch in the bathroom?” My daughter was querying my granddaughter, reviewing the “Rules For the Usage of Public Restrooms.” Imani promptly answered her mother: “The toilet paper.” I laughed, then cringed, for I had damaged my daughter’s approach to public johns, and by extension, the … Read More

My Left Foot

February 15, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

When I was a teen, I leapt and gamboled as if I were a young colt; I ran for the pure joy of it, and showed off my springs by jumping up to slap street signs. One day while on the way home from visiting with my cousins, I leaped … Read More

Me and Lena

February 8, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

“The Lena Horne stamp is out,” the woman serving me at the counter of the Post Office said. I had come to purchase “The Snowy Day,” a special stamp offered by the Post Office. The clerk’s co-worker interjected that the Lena Horne stamp would not be available until the next … Read More

A Black History Story

February 1, 2018 | by CJ Woods III

In September, 1944, The Franklin Times published an obituary on its front page for a printer who, after moving from Noblesville, Indiana, died while employed as a pressman for the newspaper. Fred Hord’s long service to the paper was written in a respectful and complimentary way, and I cannot help … Read More