NORFOLK — Members of the Norfolk Curling Club were in Salisbury last weekend, offering demonstrations of their sport and raising money (and awareness) for rebuilding their facility, which was destroyed in an arson fire last December.The club members have been without a rink for the past year, and have traveled up and down the East Coast, curling as guests at other clubs.Last weekend, for the Salisbury Winter Sports Association’s Alpine Winter Carnival, the curling club members built their own miniature outdoor rink. They came out with brooms and sweepers that looked borrowed from a (very clean) utility closet and used them to show how the ice is cleaned to allow the heavy granite curling stones to float along the frozen rink.The original home of the Norfolk Curling Club was built in 1956. The fire last December not only destroyed the rink and clubhouse, it also destroyed all the players’ equipment, trophies and memorabilia.While devastated by the arson, club members have turned their energy toward the hard work of raising money to rebuild.On Oct. 5, the club held a ceremony to break ground for a new clubhouse, which will be built partially on the same location as the old one, on Golf Drive.The building will be completely made of steel; the old clubhouse was made out of wood and steel.Club President Mary Fanette said there has been substantial progress made on construction of the building. The foundation is complete and the steel frame has been erected.Fanette said over the next few weeks the building’s roof and side panels will be added and then, she said, “Construction will stop until we get better weather, in the spring.” At that point, probably in April, “an ice machine and an ice rink will be installed in the building.”Fanette said she is excited with the progress on the new building.“I drive up to the club’s location everyday to see what’s going on. Right now I’m very hopeful that we’ll get back to curling in Norfolk later this year.”Funds are still needed to complete the construction, though.The project is expected to cost $1.5 million.“We’ve raised about three quarters of what we need so far, and will continue to raise funds throughout the rest of the year.“We do have some flexibility and can hold off on certain things if we can’t afford them. We don’t need a fully functioning kitchen right away, for example.”Fanette said the club hopes to be up and open again before the Winter Olympics in February 2014.“The Olympics is a very important time for the club because people will be watching curling on television and many of them will want to find a local curling club and try it for themselves,” she said. “The Olympics provides a very good source of membership for the club.”The demonstrations at the Alpine Winter Carnival helped as well, although with temperatures in the low 20s there wasn’t a huge turnout.“We held the demonstration at a specially made ice rink to let people throw a stone and get a sense of the game,” Fanette said. “Hopefully, we got a few new members and some donations from it. “We can’t stop trying. We have to keep going.”To make a donation and to learn more about the Norfolk Curling Club, go to www.rocknorfolk.com.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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