Truckin' on the Western Branch

About a year after the bank opened, Aston went to Manhattan for a media tour with then Portsmouth Economic Development Director Robert B. Smithwick to talk about the bank’s success. Their first stop was at Fortune magazine where a seemingly disinterested reporter asked Aston, “So just what makes this all that special?”

Stunned for a moment, Aston reached into his bag and brought out a model TowneBank Beetle. He set the tiny car on the table and talked about small banks vs. big banks and how TowneBank and its Beetles would pick up customers falling off the back of the big bank limos.

“The interviewer was intrigued by the model car and that became the story of the whole media blitz,” Aston said. “The Beetle saved the day.”

Aston has coached two generations of boys and girls in basketball, baseball, and softball in Western Branch and Churchland.

“All I learned about coaching applies to managing the bank as well,” he said. “Leadership is about follow-ship—and the belief that you can do something is central to success.”

Mr. Quick was a song and dance man? Mr. Quick, aka Philip Seidman, aka Phil Speers, aka Phil Sullivan, was a singing, dancing actor on the Cincinnati/New York vaudeville circuit—and also an umpire for the Tidewater Tides and Portsmouth Cubs.

“As Phil Speers he sang, ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime,’ with a blue spotlight on him,” said his daughter, Sara Seidman Vance. “He didn’t really play an instrument but could fake it a bit on the piano.”

Born in Baltimore in 1912, he grew up in Norfolk. He graduated from Maury High in 1929. When back problems kept him out of the military, he went to New York City to live with a married brother and launch his show business career. He came back to Hampton Roads a widower and owned Phil’s Grill at Alexander’s Corner. He met Suzanne, an artist, painter, and director of the Portsmouth Community Arts Center.

When they married, Seidman moved his restaurant to Churchland and called it the Trucker Burger—home of the nostalgic 35-cent hamburger.

Vance remembered: When Burger Chef came to town selling 10-cent hamburgers, he couldn’t compete and almost went bankrupt. His brother Herman, of Herman’s Grill, loaned him the money to open Mr. Quick in 1964. Phil bought chicken-frying equipment from a Mr. Quick company and got permission to use the name.

Phil and Christine, his helper, could cut up 10 crates of chicken in an hour—the chicken was flying! He gave away the chicken backs and necks to crabbers.

People didn’t realize it was actually kosher chicken—soaked in brine in big buckets overnight and cooked fresh as it was ordered. He always used fresh Rockinghams and had them killed kosher—humanely. And always used kosher salt, but Phil wasn’t kosher because he loved bacon.

Seidman sold the business in 1977 and died two years later.

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