DRIVER DAYS TO OFFER HISTORY, ENTERTAINMENT

DRIVER DAYS promises to be quite a history lesson - covering the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, plus the Korean conflict.

There is much more - entertainment, exhibits and eats, including buffalo meat.

Vehicle enthusiasts will enjoy the displays of antique cars and World War II Jeeps. Paul Smith and his race car will be there as well as a go-cart exhibit, and a Red Cross ambulance used during the Korean fighting.

The latter is part of a MASH unit display by the Virginia Military Preservation Society, Tidewater Chapter.

``It will be a hospital setup in tents, complete with surgical items, litters to carry the wounded, field telephones,'' said Dale Davis of Virginia Beach, a Society member. ``We might even have a helicopter. The whole thing is similar to what you saw on the television show, `MASH.' ''

Driver Days is reaching farther back - to the time when the community was known as Persimmon Crossroads. The name was changed to Driver before the Civil War to honor a local family.

While there are no displays connected with the Revolutionary War, you can tread where Cornwallis tread. He stayed in a house, demolished many years ago, about a quarter of a mile behind Driver Elementary School.

Gen. Charles Cornwallis entered the Hampton Roads area in 1781 - there were 3,000 British forces in the area that year.

``He crossed the Sleepy Hole Ferry and quartered at John Darden's house,'' according to a 1975 treatise by Craig Parker, proprietor of the Driver Variety Store.

The house he lives in, sitting just behind his store, was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War.

This weekend - a touch of irony: The Confederates are taking over.

The 1st Battalion of Virginia, a re-enactment group, will be in uniform, occupying the building that once housed New York Yankees.

The 99th New York Volunteers were in and out of the house during the War Between the States.

``They used it as headquarters,'' Parker said - ``go out and fight, come back, go out and fight, come back.''

The nine-room house was put on logs and rolled from its original site, a field behind Beech Grove United Methodist Church, to its present locale many years ago.

``No one knows when the house was built. We re-built it about five years ago,'' Parker said. ``We still have the original pegs, framing and cedar shingles.''

This weekend, he and his wife, Ellisse, and their 9-year-old son, Jason, will make way for a re-enactment of Civil War military life.

Some of the Drivers Days entertainment is quite a contrast, particularly MOM, a psychedelic blues band offering original material.

Country bands, Driver - named for guess what? - and Southern Exposure will perform.

There will be karate demonstrations, line dancing, performances by native Americans, a visit from Jotto the Clown.

There will be four cakewalks each day, sponsored by Chesapeake Anglers. The prizes are obvious.

Glebe Episcopal Church is offering free tours of its premises, plus free lemonade.

Crafts, duck carvings and flower arrangements will be displayed, and there will be two raffles each day.

``The winners get half the raffle money,'' Parker said. ``The rest goes to the Driver Volunteer Fire Department and the Bennetts Creek Rescue Squad.''

Members of those organizations and the Western Branch 4H Club are donating their time to help with the parking - in the Driver Elementary School lot - and other chores.

Confederate souvenirs will be sold as well as food and soft drinks, including ham dinners from the Driver Ruritan Club. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by FRANK ROBERTS

J.W. Cooper is part of the 1st Battalion of Virginia, a re-enactment group that will be in uniform at Driver Days.