How I Got in the Newspaper Business

By Woody Jenkins, editor Central City News

My first experience in business was — ironically — in newspapers!  It was 1951, and I was four!  

We lived on Lobelia Street by Esso Standard Oil in North Baton Rouge.  We were just around the corner from Mr. Dunlap’s Drugstore on Scenic Highway.

I noticed my dad saved all his old copies of the Advocate and State-Times in a pile by the door.  

I asked him what they were worth. He said he paid 5 cents for each of them. Then I asked him, “Daddy, would you pay 10 cents if you really, really wanted one?”  Yes he would, he said!  

I thought and thought.  Then I said, “Daddy, could I have some of your papers?”  Sure, he said.  I was in business!  I went door to door selling old newspapers for 10 cents each.  

I guess I was so cute and so energetic that no one had the heart to mention that the papers were old!  I certainly didn’t get it.  They were all the same to me.  

Then one lady asked my name.  There was something about the way she looked at me — like maybe I was a criminal.  I stuttered and blurted out, “I’m Johnny-Boy, Johnny-Boy Jenkins!”  

A made-up name!  I knew instinctively I better not use Woody!  

Hmmm… she didn’t buy a paper. I was three blocks from home and these people didn’t know me. 

At the next house, my world and my scam came tumbling down. A gruff-looking man, probably a debt collector in real life, answered the door. 

“Yeah, what you want, boy?”  

I said, “Hi, I’m Johnny-Boy Jenkins. Would you like to buy a paper for 10 cents?”  

“Ten cents!!!” he shouted.  “Let me see that!”  

He looked at my papers.  “Boy, you’re cheating people! These are old papers and you’re selling them for twice the real price!  Get your cheating little ass home and don’t let me catch you again or I’ll call the police on you!  You’ll probably be in Angola before you’re 12!”  

I was bawling before I made it to the sidewalk!  I ran home crying all the way!   

My daddy said, “You did what?” And I got a well deserved spanking!  Then came the worst!  “Boy, you take back all that money to those poor people you cheated!  They must think we’re starving down here and sent our boy to trick them out of their money! Now take it back.”  

And I did. Every last penny, amounting to more than three dollars. Well, except for the 40 cents Miss Harger gave me.  

“Oh, keep it, Woody, I knew those papers were old. Just buy yourself some candy at Mr. Dunlap’s Drugstore, and don’t let your daddy know I let you keep it, promise?”  

All’s well that ends well.  But then one more crisis.  About a week later, my Mama was in Dunlap’s Drugstore and ran into a neighbor.  

She said, “Mrs. Jenkins, do you have two boys?  I thought you only had one, but I met a Johnny-Boy Jenkins trying to sell me old newspapers!  Is that your boy too?”  

That encounter led to two more whippings.  One for selling those damn newspapers and another for telling mama I didn’t call myself Johnny-Boy Jenkins when I did.  

Give me a break, I was four!

Excerpt from 80 Trips Around the Sun by Woody Jenkins, scheduled for publication in early 2027.  To pre-order, send check for $25 payable to Community Press, LLC, 910 North Foster Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70806.