SHARON — Clarke Outdoors is a recreation fixture on Route 7, just south of the West Cornwall Covered Bridge. Water conditions change from year to year, sometimes the weather cooperates and sometimes it doesn’t, but there always seems to be a demand for trips on the Housatonic River.“The funny thing about our business — typically we rent canoes, kayaks and rafts on the West Cornwall section of the Housatonic River — it seems the demand for that has only grown over the years,” said owner Jenifer Clarke. “However, now that we no longer have dam releases, the water supply has decreased. Other than that, I don’t see a lot of change.” This year has presented its own unique challenges, but Clarke said business has been good. “It has been a very funny year in that it started very late due to the cold wet spring,” she said. “June and July were very busy, but in August business slowed down because most of the big storms missed us and the river has been very low. Despite the late start and low river in August it has still been a good year.”Clarke said the majority of their customers come from southern Connecticut and New York.“Our customer base is not the typical 18- to 27-year-old demographic,” she said. “Our customer base ranges from families with 7-year-olds on up. In fact, we recently had a group including a grandmother and her children and grandchildren all out together on a canoe trip. We get a lot of three-generation families with different age groups, which is kind of cool.”Clarke Outdoors usually opens for the season in early April of each year and closes in mid-October. Exact opening and closing dates are never predetermined; they are variable based on water levels and air temperatures.“During the off season I have a nonrecreation job at The Hotchkiss School,” Clarke said, “and most of my staff goes back to college. They usually begin calling me in March to find out when we will open again.”One year Clarke Outdoors tried renting cross-country skis in the winter but it did not become a viable business due to the lack of regular snow falls.Clarke said she has not seen many changes over the years in the outdoor recreation business. She said people seem more concerned about the weather than in decades past, which she attributed to the influence of The Weather Channel.“People realize it is a great river,” she said. “It’s a great way to get out and feel like you are in the wilderness even though you’re not. Ninety-five percent of our clients come back happy and that’s the way it’s always been.”Clarke added that the Northwest Corner is attractive to those looking for outdoor recreation.“The main thing is people love this area and some come in if they are just driving by,” she said. “Many love the Appalachian trail. Some rent bikes in Kent. They come and see the beauty of the area and they just want to be outside. That will never change as long as we don’t let the area change. It is just a great spot.” Clarke Outdoors is located at 163 Route 7, West Cornwall. For information, call 860-672-6365 or visit www.clarkeoutdoors.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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