NORFOLK — Most people who have lived in the Northwest Corner for long enough know that curling is one of the highlights of the local winter sports season.But most people don’t have a very solid idea of how to curl, or of what curling is.According to the United States Curling Association, this Olympic ice sport began in 16th-century Scotland. It was originally played outdoors on frozen lochs and marshes and, in essentials at least, it hasn’t changed all that much through the years. Curling competitions are now held all over the world, all across North America — and just off Route 44, at the Norfolk Curling Club (NCC).Scottish immigrants brought curling to Canada around 1759 and to the United States around 1832. Today, there are more than 135 curling clubs in about 25 states. It is most popular in Canada, where it is one of the top-rated sports on television.The word curling comes from the movement of the rock (or stone), which has a handle on its top, which is slid down a sheet of ice toward a target (called a house) at the other end of the sheet. The handle allows the player to grip the rock and rotate it upon release. On properly prepared ice, the stone’s path will bend (curl) in the direction that the front edge of the stone is turning, especially as the stone slows.Once the rock is delivered (pushed down the ice sheet), team members use brooms to warm the ice in front of the rock to help keep it moving straight and get to the house (the target). Points are awarded for the stones that get closest to the target.In the 20th century, the game made advances with the availability of refrigerated indoor ice, which helps ensure a fast, consistent and predictable playing surface.In a curling match there are two teams with four members each. All four players on each team shoot, or deliver, two rocks during a game. Rocks were standardized to 42 pounds in modern times. They are made from two types of granite, both of which are mainly found in Scotland. The typical curling game consists of eight “ends” (or innings) and lasts about two hours.Curling may look like an easy game, but it actually requires a great deal of physical dexterity and stamina as well as the ability to strategize. In a typical game, each player walks about two miles on the ice.Mary Fanette is president of the Norfolk Curling Club. She said the club was established in 1956 and currently has about 80 members. “We’re not at full roster and would love to have closer to 100 members,” she said. Membership dues pay the operating expenses of the club — including the cost of refrigerating the ice sheet during the season (which usually runs from November through April). The club does not have a junior curling program, Fanette said, but only because not enough young people are interested in the sport. A minimum of eight players would be needed for a junior league, to make two teams of four players.The United States Curling Association (USCA), founded in 1958, is a member of the World Curling Federation, which governs international competition. In addition to the USCA, the NCC is also a member of the Grand National Curling Association. The Norfolk club hosts several bonspiels (or tournaments) with other clubs throughout the season.The NCC boasts an ice shed recently updated with new heating and energy efficient lighting. There are currently leagues for women and men. There are curling clinics for members and newcomers. The club has a licensed bar and a warming room overlooking the ice, and hosts several noncurling social events throughout the year.The NCC is located at 70 Golf Drive, Norfolk. For more information call 860-542-1100 or go online to www.norfolkcurlingclub.org.
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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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