Truckin' on the Western Branch

Tom Parker The Parkers’ Village Flower Shop has been a part of Churchland for almost half a century—and was a second home to Tom Parker. He lived on Briarwood Lane in Cavalier Forest but was often with his parents, Walter and Janice Parker, in their business. After working with the airlines, Tom Parker trained at a flower school in Washington, D.C., and came back to the family business where he had watched his father arrange flowers for years.

My grandparents Parker ran Parkers Open Air Market where London Oaks apartments are now. They sold flowers, vegetables, meats, seafood. They lost the property to the city in the early 1960s and decided that Churchland needed a florist. That meant I didn’t have my parents for any holidays. Cindy, my sister seven years older, took care of me. Then I started working in the shop as a go-fer, sweeping up.

I remember when the woods and fields were yellow with daffodils. They were the first flower that my dad sold. I went to Western Branch Schools and then to Nansemond Suffolk Academy. I was a small kid and had to run from class to class—I was the size kid that could be stuffed into a locker real easy. When I was a teenager, I hunted the whole area and often came out of the woods carrying the game in one arm and some flora for the shop in the other. Now the quail, dove, deer are gone.

Tom Parker. Image by Sheally

Martha Frances Ayers Fortson Martha Frances Fortson, Executive Director of the Portsmouth Museums Foundation, Inc., grew up in early Briarwood, the daughter of Irma Frances and Fred Ayers. All the developments sprang up at about the same time in Churchland. My grandfather, A. B. Greene, had lots of farmland and wanted us all together, so he developed Briarwood into building lots. His son, Earle Greene, lived on a lane off Cedar Lane near Greenfield farms. I loved the farm and grew up on tractors. In Briarwood we were all close—the Longs, Swansons, Ayers, Blanchards, Hanburys, Halls. Originally there were only six children in the neighborhood. We never locked a door and we had treehouses. On my 11th birthday, I was allowed to ride my bike from Briarwood to River Shore. Every May everyone packed up and headed for Virginia Beach.

Martha Frances Ayers Fortson. Image by Sheally

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