Peninsula In Passage

Leon Morris, Craig Parker and Severn Warrington, friends in the Driver Variety Store

Anyone who’s stopped in Driver over the last 20 years might remember his parents, Gordon C. “Red” and Virginia Arthur Parker. Red Parker ran the Driver Variety store stocked with a dizzying array of goods from kitchen and garden tools, to hunting supplies to animated, singing plush guinea pigs. It was also where Red held court for his cronies on the front porch and inspired songwriter Budi Sheckler to write

Early mornin’ catches Red on the porch of the Variety Store Got a cold RC in one hand, waiting and rocking away And he doesn’t look like he’s going further than the rest of the day

Virginia Parker

Red Parker

Virginia Parker, Red’s childhood sweetheart, renowned for her love of Christmas with all its trimmings, was the matriarch of the village, keeping a loving but firm hand on her family and the crossroads. Virginia died shortly before Christmas in 2003 and Red followed less than a year later. Jacques F. “Jake” Gutelius came to Driver with the family grain business in the early 1900’s. In 1954, after the granary was sold, he opened Virginia Beach Feed and Seed in the old Driver railroad station. Gutelius was a big man, with a big, gravelly voice, who sported striped suspenders over his equally big heart. Jake and Sheba, his constant, canine companion, were crossroads icons. When he died of coronary disease at 82 in 2000 his death left a hole in the heart of Driver.

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