Truckin' on the Western Branch

Don Comer Born in Charlotte, Don Comer came to Churchland from the Philadelphia area as a young teenager in 1966 when his father, Donald W. Comer Sr., opened a Ford dealership in Portsmouth. Our family lived in Siesta Gardens first and then built a house on River Shore Road. It was nice to come back south with lots of relatives, southern accents, and the smell of low tide. This is a unique section of the world with its creeks and bays.

The people here are down to earth, no pretense. They are incredibly talented, smart people, but they don’t wear it on their sleeve or flaunt their success or money.

I went to Churchland High and will never forget Gracie Lee teaching me to drive— and Ashton Lewis buying a full-page ad from me for the yearbook. Susan and I met in high school and went to the Junior/Senior prom together. I graduated in 1970 and went to Roanoke College to major in English. We got married in 1977, and I worked at the dealership and installed basketball goals for Kessler’s Sporting Goods. Susan Brown Comer , like many other residents, owes her Churchland-area “citizenship” to General Electric. Her father was an industrial engineer with GE and, in 1953, took a job transfer from Illion, New York, where she had been born. We lived in Armistead Forest, in the country with the peach orchards and Respass Beach. Dad had no idea how the area would grow. I had to learn to eat crabs, grits, collards, and barbecue, and it was a shock going from a Catholic school in New York to Churchland Junior High, then at the end of Oak Drive. I had Emily Duke for English.

This is a community with very close ties, and people will bring you in. I loved that you could never say anything about anyone.

It used to be the only places to go in town were Speers and the Pretzel Barrel.

Don and Susan Comer. Image by Sheally

I graduated from Churchland in 1971, went to Virginia Tech, and taught at Cradock and then Western Branch High School for 32 years. Don and I lived in Waterview and in Merrifields before moving to Western Branch—but it’s still Churchland to us.

Joan Skrobizewski: “ Best thing about the community is the bonding, our relationship with friends we’ve had since we came here.”

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