Mama and Betty, Downtown Florence 1944
Bette Cox
Elizabeth G. "Bette" Cox grew up in Florence, in the heart of South Carolina's Pee Dee region. She attended the University of South Carolina at Florence, now Francis Marion University, and in 2006 received a Certificate as Oral Historian from UCLA-Davis. This site is dedicated to her first love, writing.
Contents
- About Bette Cox
- Executive Services, Inc.
- S.C. Family Memories Service
- The Tim Cox Story
- Family Memories Newspaper Columns
- Esther's Petition, Current
- Esther's Petition, Archives
- The Simsville Inheritance
- Short Stories
Also visit Bette's photographer brother Harold Motte's websites and enjoy his beautiful photographs of the Carolinas:
Esther's Petition
Esther's Petition has its own blogsite and current entries appear there. Here's a recent one.
Where will you be in 500 years?
Sometimes I'm taken aback by the reaction of Christians to the death of another believer. I don't mean the normal sense of loss, grief, sadness and sympathy for the family and friends - those things I understand very, very well.
Those reactions are part of our human nature. We lose our mother, father, husband, child, friend, and we feel the dreadfully empty hole where they used to be.
No, what I'm talking about is the other regret they sometimes express, that now that person won't have a chance to see another beautiful sunset, or see their grandchildren all grown up and successful, or experience the grandeur of a vacation in some spectacular place, even spiritual ones in a place like Israel.
As if those things are the very best God ever created and now those opportunities are gone forever. As if death was the end of our lives.
Short Stories
Humorous short stories featuring Myrtle's unnamed friend who gets herself into peculiar predicaments. Here's an excerpt from her latest adventure:
You Missed a Real Party, Myrtle
Hey, Myrtle, how you doing? Yeah, Spring's sprung looks like. Hey, Myrtle, you missed a real party out at that old graveyard next to Second Baptist Church. Cause that's where we had the egg hunt for the church daycare this year. This year we decided to jazz it up a bit so we could get a few more grown-ups interested, what with just me and one other volunteer not being quite up to running around a graveyard with 20 four-year olds.
No, the daycare kiddies are not 24 years old, Myrtle, we had 20 of ‘em, all of them were four years old, more or less. Couple of threes, one or two fives. Jazz it up? Make it more fun, Myrtle, more fun!
How? Well, we decided since the Halloween Costume Contest went over so good we'd try our hand at Easter costumes. You know, Roman soldiers, apostles, angels, that kind of thing seeing it was the day after Good Friday. Naturally we had to allow Peter Cottontail and such, too.
Bette's Blogs
- Bette's Not Just Another Blog - This, that and the other.
- Bette's Journal - Bette's reactions following Tim's death December 15, 2006.
- Esther's Petition - Bible studies and thoughts from Scripture.
Family Memories Columns
Glimpses of life growing up in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina in the 1930's, 40's, 50's and 60's, give or take a decade or two. These columns appear regularly in The News Journal (Florence and Marion, SC). Here's the latest edition.
Mama's Cookbook
This morning I went looking for a recipe. I knew it was handwritten on an index card somewhere, maybe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It resides in the kitchen drawer of potholders, easy to find. The card wasn't there. Hmm.
Maybe it was in the yellow recipe box I'd gotten free in the mail years ago, along with a dozen full-color recipes for fancy dishes I'd never eat, much less prepare. I had used that handy box to store newspaper and magazine clippings of economical, tasty meals, like meat and pasta or veggie casseroles, easy-to-prepare and "sure to please the whole family." You know the kind. Since my kids are grown, I don't cook from scratch much, and for meals I do cook I know the recipes by heart.
But this one recipe I didn't know by heart, hence the search for that elusive card. Finally, there in the bottom of my pantry, way to the back, was the yellow box. And beneath it was something I had forgotten — Mama's Pilot Club Cookbook from 1965.
As I turned the pages it was easy to spot Mama's favorite recipes. Those pages had smudges on them, dried smears of cake batter, or pie filling, or vanilla flavoring. Pineapple upside-down cake was a frequent dessert at our house and a popular cake to provide for family reunions or church socials. There were five recipes for this cake - which one did Mama use? I tried to figure this out.
The Simsville Inheritance
A humorous serial mystery about Avery Alderson, a young woman who has inherited an entire town. Here's an excerpt from the current chapter.
Chapter 26 - Easy come, easy go
Jamie found a seat against a wall, spread out several wrinkled napkins, a bagel and coffee cup onto the little square tables on either side to discourage anyone from using them, and powered up his computer. Time for a few more forays, a few more thousand dollars worth of transfers.
He spread a little cream cheese onto a bagel half and took a bite, watching the screen run through its opening routines. He was tempted to hum a happy tune, but he didn't want to draw any attention.
As soon as Jamie keyed in the password, the screen locked up. As he stared at the icon blinking back at him, he knew they'd figured something out. Maybe those bank folks had gotten worried when their people turned up missing and pulled the plug. Or maybe their missing people were no longer missing, one or the other.
He surfed the internet news for a few minutes while he thought about the situation. Everything that had worked so well just a day ago no longer worked and his access to all that easy money was gone. He knew he could get it back if he put his mind to it, but trying that wouldn't be too smart. When the bank gurus learned some mole had been siphoning off their cash, they'd come looking for that mole. Sure, his system was as secure as it could be made to be but nothing was that secure.
Oh well, easy come, easy go, although it hadn't all gone, at least not yet. And if he stayed away from Atlantic City a while longer, maybe he could stretch it out a bit.
Regretfully, he closed the computer down, pulled out the little storage card and stuck it in his pocket. He'd have to ditch the computer, case, drives, battery and all — better to be safe than sorry.
To contact Bette Cox:
1231-1 Via Ponticello
Florence, SC 29501
(843) 665-7620
E-mail bettecox@bellsouth.net
Site by Bette. © 2008 Elizabeth G. Cox. All rights reserved. You are visitor number