Peninsula In Passage

The last blow to the area rolled in late on a Monday afternoon, April 28, 2008. An EF3 tornado roared down on the unsuspecting crossroads. The tornado left a path of destruction behind it and swept away the Driver Variety store, trapping one store regular inside. A Virginian-Pilot news story reads – Amazingly there were no casualties and even Leroy Schmidt, who was buried under the debris, was back in the village that night after being treated at Obici Hospital. “Harry Gutelius is the hero,” Jason Gould said of the man who rescued Schmidt. Gould and his father, Ronnie Gould, rode out the storm in their village business, the Rio Grande Traders. In the time it took the Goulds to slam shut their building doors, the storm leveled the Variety Store, owned by Craig Parker. As the store went down, Gregory Parker ran out of his own business, Arthur’s General Store, across Driver Lane, shouting for his brother Craig. Ronnie Gould, who a few minutes earlier had warned the Variety Store regulars of the approaching storm, told him Craig Parker wasn’t in the store - but no one could account for Schmidt. As it turned out Schmidt dived for cover under a pile of clothing just before the roof fell in. “Harry jumped on the roof and, like The Hulk, started pulling off sections of wall to get to Leroy,” Jason Gould said. “I couldn’t believe anyone could live through that,” Gutelius said. “You don’t think about it, you just do it.” The tall and wiry Gutelius, 45, is the third generation of his family to run Virginia Beach Feed and Seed at the end of Kings Highway. Down Kings Highway Phyllis Murphy and a couple employees survived, huddled in her Harmony House Antiques business while the winds tore at the building, a vintage house that once was the Masonic Hall, Craig Parker recalled that the area used to field several ball teams including one named, ironically, the Wilroy Tornadoes. In the tornado aftermath, orange condemned signs went up on several buildings near the crossroads. But Joan Mayo, who, with her son, Ken Parsons, owns The Knot Hole Station on Kings Highway, was optimistic as she talked about the village’s recovery to news reporters. It’s amazing how the village is coming together - people were coming down Driver Lane with chainsaws and tools to help, Dominos and Papa John’s were delivering free pizzas all day,” Mayo said, “It will take a village to put this village back together again. The folks in Driver don’t go down easy.

Six months later they rallied to again host Driver Days, the crossroads’ annual fall festival that started in 1992 and draws thousands of people to the village. But even that’s only a small answer to the bigger challenge of commercial survival. Greg Parker, a musician as well as a struggling shop owner, has chosen to stay in Driver, saying It’s the heritage. I’ve got two children, boys, and I see something after me. As you get older everything the old people said is true – they aren’t making it up. When I was younger the pull of music was strong but as an adult, I’m more rational, and this is home.

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