A highlight of the Auburn Merchants Christmas Open Houses on Saturday, Dec. 6, will be the opening of Cox’s Variety Store from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tours will be available but no merchandise will be sold.
Cox’s Variety Store was a staple in downtown Auburn for 56 years. Everybody in Auburn shopped there for generations, and people came from great distances to partake in its charm. After its proprietors, Martha and Dickie Cox, died, the store was closed and everything inside left just as it was.
Kelly Bond Clark says, “Cox Variety Store will be open for Tours Only. No merchandise will be sold, but you are welcome to come in and look around. Please bring your children and grandchildren to show them what it was like to Shop before Walmart. Tickets are $1 per adult, and 50 cents per child. Proceeds will be donated to the Auburn Historical Society. Each person will receive a photo copy of the front cover of the Christmas catalog, and a candy cane. Just like we did in elementary school many years ago! There will be one of three of these on display that day for careful viewing. I cannot wait to visit and hear the stories from everyone!”
Other businesses expected to have their “houses open” Dec. 6 include Yard Sale Shop, Williams Flooring Center, Sisterhood Monogramming, Colonial House Furniture, Wholesale 2 U, Country Side Bake Shop, PFK’s Emporium & Restaurant, Main Street Style, Attic on the Corner, Creations by Christina, and Federal Grove Bed & Breakfast, which will offer lunch to customers. In the area, Shakertown at South Union will have its annual South Union Shaker Village Holiday Market.
Kentucky folklore journalist Bryon Crawford wrote in 1999: “The scene could almost have been stolen from an old episode of The Andy Griffith Show,” about his visit to Auburn.
He was talking about Cox’s Variety Store and told of the wide variety of toys, candies and household items for sale there.
Richard and Martha Cox moved from Mt. Vernon, Ky. and started the store in 1951 and stayed open until Dick’s death on Oct. 14, 2007. Martha was born in 1904 and still came to the store every day in her late 90s. Dickie, who was veteran and a graduate of prestigious Centre College, had worked at the store for exactly 40 years, 32 of them as manager.
Crawford wrote, “Cox's father, who died in 1975, advertised 10,001 items when he opened the store in 1951, and he probably had more. In those days the store carried everything from washing machines, stove pipe, paint, linoleum and toys to Hallmark cards. And it still boasts a variety that ranges from hand creams to costume jewelry, housewares, sewing supplies, greeting cards and toys, to artificial flowers, giftware, pots and pans and oil cloth that is still sold by the yard.
“The little store with the big inventory measures only 17 by 70 feet, but it has survived long enough to take its place among the favorite landmarks around Auburn.
“Even so, life goes on at Cox Variety, where some of the townspeople still pay their electric bills at the original counter and buy candy out of the original candy case, or use the same old light-bulb tester that Dick Cox's father installed when the store opened. Cox and his mother still use the same knife that Dick's father used to open cardboard
Auburn poet laureate F. Marie Foley wrote in 1995, “The store was always child-friendly. Mr. and Mrs. Cox were always ready to answer a question or hand down some treasure from a high shelf a child wanted to see. As soon as school was out the store was full of boys and girls, with school bags, stopping for candy. As busy and crowded as the store became there was never one child rushed or hurried along. We took our time choosing what we would buy with our dime, or on the rare occasion a quarter. There were dozens of different candies and gum. Mr. and Mrs. Cox seemed to understand that choosing among all of these was difficult and that major decisions were in progress.
“In my travels, over these many years, in the U.S. and abroad, never have I found the quiet dignity and welcome that envelopes you when you open the door and the bell jingles at Cox's Variety Store.
“My wish for every child in Auburn and elsewhere is that there will always be a Cox Variety Store, and that at Christmas there would be a sleigh, red wagon and china doll in the window; ladies buying boxed handkerchiefs and towels; and best of all a little girl dawdling over a bracelet or a gold heart on a chain, believing in dreams.”
Charles Browning, who started a website about Auburn, wrote several years ago, “Remember when just around the corner seemed so far away,”
“And going to Cox Variety store was going somewhere any day,”
The Cox Variety Store Facebook page has been active for years. Some of the comments on it follow:
Carolyn Scarbrough Thurman: “My daughter Danielle would stop just to talk to Ms. Cox and loved spending time with a sweet treasure.”
Brandi LaMae Poole: “I remember going to the laundramat on Saturdays when it was on the corner, and when Momma would get the clothes started we would always walk to see Mr. Cox. I always got a handful of bubblegum before I left… Needless to say by the time I actually walked out my cheeks looked like chipmunks’, but I was always guaranteed to get my Christmas gifts from that store. I loved it.”
Neal Stanley: “I remember buying my mom glass figurine birds, little men and women there.”
Lori Lee Brown: “I spent my allowance at the candy counter. The Coxes were always so patient as we made up our minds on Saturday. The little brown bag full of candy was the best. I loved Cox's Variety Store. I spent hours and hours in there growing up. I loved paper dolls and they always had those. I learned how to wrap gifts and make bows just by watching Mrs. Cox when I had her wrap things for me. And she was always so happy to do it!”
Julie McGee Belcher: “Cox’s was where we bought girls’ first tricylces.
Raven Akins: “I loved to go talk with Dickie when I wasn’t cutting hair at Akins hometown Barber Shop. I learned a lot from him. I sure do miss him”
Rex Lashley: “I went in one day and asked Dickie if he had a keychain with a coke bottle on it. He climbed on the shelf, dug behind a couple of boxes, and came out with a small box of old coke bottles with a bead chain.” If you could think it, they had it.”
Jana Hanks: “They always had the Barbie dolls I wanted.”
Kathy Hardison: “I don’t think anyone who grew up in Auburn doesn’t have memories of going to Cox’s on Saturday and leaving with a big bag of penny candy and a smile. It was the highlight of my week as a kid.”
Helen Kimball Jordan: “We were newcomers over 30 years ago when we came to Auburn. One of the first places I remember going was into Cox’s. What a treasure chest!
Susan Neal Clapp: “I believe if Cox’s didn’t have it, you didn’t need it! I always looked forward to going to Cox’s when I would visit my grandparents. My favorite thing was selecting “Paint by the Numbers” pictures. Mrs. Cox always made you feel so welcome in the store. Good times!”
Harry Brumley: “My dad owned the Standard gas station on the square in the mid- to late-60s. I was in and out of there every day, as well as the Pool Hall next door. Since moving away, I would stop and visit whenever I came through. Dickie and Mrs. Cox never forgot who I was. My wife fell in love with Mrs. Cox. Sadly, the last couple of tiems I’ve been through town, it was closed. It still looks the same, as if they just locked the doors and went home.”
Candice M. Keys: “Almost every summer we would spend time in Auburn visiting Granny and Grandad (Junior and Lillian Lee). Going to Ms. Cox’s was one of the highlights of our visits. We would walk/run/stroll from the cemetery to town. We would comeback with this huge bag of candy. I still tell stories to people I meet about Ms. Cox’s amazing store.”
Michael K. Bogle: “Back when I was in Auburn, I would help my grandfather, Ed Coleman, mow yards, so I could get a few bucks to go to Cox’s and get chocolate footballs.”
Jennifer Clapp: “My Grandmama would take me to Cox’s when I’d come visit during the summer. Granddaddy would give me a dollar or two and I’d go to town on that 10-cent candy just inside the door! I’d also get an Effenbee doll from Cox’s on Christmas and for my birthday.”
Dina Capek: “I loved going to Ms. Cox’s. My mother would take me there often. Loved getting a little bag on 1-cent candies. My favorite was the little multi-colored chocolate balls that came in a long skinny package, and Bazooka bubble gum. Anytime I needed a birthday gift for a friend. My mother would take me there. My first watch came from there. There was no place like it.”
Jane Clark: “I remember going in Cox's for sewing supplies. We sewed most of our clothes (that used to be fashionable) and we could always find just the right color thread, buttons, or trim. And of course, candy in that front shelf was always a temptation.”
Lynne Thomas: “I remember the year was 1984 and I had lived in Auburn only a short amount of time. Money was tight that year and we didn’t have much for my daughters for Christmas that year. I went to Cox's hoping for a bargain or two to put under the tree and became fast friends with Dickie. Needless to say, if you knew the man at all, you will know that my children had a nice Christmas that year, thanks to my newly established "credit account". I paid back every dime and called on his generosity more than once over the years. He never asked for a dime in payment, he had the biggest heart of anyone I knew. Auburn misses you, Dickie Cox.”
Connie Lee Kessinger: “I spent a lot of time in the "10 cent store" as a child. I remember Dicky and his mother. Mrs. Cox would always wrap presents for me and put her special bows on them (you got to help by putting you finger on there so she could tie the knot). Great memories.”
Suzi Burgher Payne (who started the Facebook page): “Ahhhh....the Candy Counter at "Miss Cox's".......every Saturday I spent all my allowance right there.....then, a few years later my parents spent THEIR allowance at Dr. Al Arney's dental office. If I'd only known I would end up marrying a dentist, could've save them a bucket-load of money.”