Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
|
“The signing is on the day before Mother’s Day,” Cox pointed out. “Mrs. Oakley thought that would be a good time because more people would be in the store.”
This book, which contains four short stories, is written for children. All four stories are based on personal experiences in Cox’s life. The first story, “Daddy Bo Brown’s Mysterious Village,” came from a dream she had after she began working with children at Oak Forest Methodist Church. With that job on her mind, she was dreaming of the supplies cabinet that she had been reorganizing and the items in it, such as crayons, pencils, scissors and construction paper. In the dream, these items came to life with personalities of their own. When Cox woke up she wrote down her recollections of that dream. It was eventually developed into a story with a moral.
“I was trying to show in that story that people get their feelings hurt a lot of times,” Cox said.
Cox was born in 1941, “on the top of a mountain,” 12 miles north of Stuart, Va. Her parents divorced when she was extremely young. After the split, she and her brother, who were both pre-school age at the time, went to live with their grandparents. This experience inspired Cox to write “Mountain Adventures With Julie and Roy,” the second story in the book.
Eventually, she and her brother moved in with their mother, who had found work at a cotton mill in Winston-Salem. She married Bill Cox when she was 15 years old and dropped out of school. At the age of 18 she went to work for a Hanes Hosiery mill in Winston-Salem. Nine years later, she was laid off at Hanes, but landed a job at the Western Electric plant in the same city. It became AT&T Technologies before shutting down after she had been there over 18 years. At that time, Cox trained cosmetology and worked in that profession. She later worked as a guide for Holiday Tours, which gave her an opportunity to visit all 50 states, as well as several foreign countries.
Meanwhile, despite dropping out of school at a young age, Cox has since received a lot of formal education. She obtained her GED at Forsyth Tech and has also taken courses at Davidson County Community College and Stanly Community College. She is a licenced notary and has studied tax preparation.
The Coxes have a son, two daughters, six grandchildren and a great-grandson. They will celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary next month.
“Christmas Surprises and Memories,” the third story in the book, is based on a tradition that has been in her family for many years. “Grandpa’s Wooden Heart,” the final story, was based on an interaction between her husband and their grandson.
In addition to working with children at Oak Forest Methodist, which she still does, Cox conducts a Youth For Christ class at Samaritan Baptist Church.
As a writer, Cox had poems and other work published in the company newsletter when she worked at Western Electric-AT&T Technologies. Later, as a tour guide, she wrote some accounts of her travels that were published in the Asheboro Courier-Tribune.
“I always wanted to write, but never really had the opportunity while I was working, raising the children and all,” Cox said. “Every once in a while, I’d write down my feelings and things like that.”
Once Cox left the tour company in the summer of 2004, she had more time for writing.
“I have several stories that I have written over the years, but I decided to go with those four in this book,” she said.
The book was published by Rosedog Books, a Pittsburgh, Pa., company, on Dec. 9 of last year. Now Cox is working on a novel.
“It’s going to be a Christian woman’s book, called ‘Through the Mist Love Came Calling,’” she said. “It’s going to be a whole lot bigger than my first one. I’ve been working on it for five or six years and, hopefully, get it done before too awful long.”
The veteran of several occupations is excited about her new writing career and hopes she can be an inspiration to others.
“I want to encourage young people, who are interested in writing, to go ahead and start now,” she said. “But if you’re older, don’t give up on your dreams. Just keep on keeping on.”
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500 ext. 230 or at reid@tvilletimes.com.