CORNWALL — A chimney fire at the Pine Street home of Pat and Jerry Blakey on Feb. 2 burned itself out by the time firefighters arrived. But it was a close call that served as a good reminder of how unexpectedly the most common residential fire of the season can happen.“Being a fireman, I had been at many chimney fires, and had one in my home before,” Jerry Blakey said later that day. “But there was no roar. We had no clue inside the house what was going on.”He had restarted a fire in the woodstove they use to help heat their two-story Colonial. They have been using wood that was cut three years ago and was presumably very dry. There was no loud roar from the fire as is often the case when creosote residue ignites. It was only by chance that a little before 10 a.m., Blakey saw a clue that was a red flag to his trained eye.“My son, David, had just come by and I was at the door. I looked out and saw the smoke from our chimney blowing back toward the house. It was orange instead of white.”Blakey immediately did two things, one right and one wrong. He checked the stove and closed off the air supply to try to smother the fire — and he hesitated to call 911.“That’s a lesson to be remembered. Always call the fire department right away, no matter what,” he said.He was able to use his experience to assess the situation, and he was thinking he didn’t want a bunch of volunteers to come out for no reason. But he quickly remembered the advice he would have given others. He also knows that the real danger is when the fire finds its way into other areas of the house. Properly handling a chimney fire includes checking the adjoining structure.“The fire department responded very quickly. They did a great job of venting smoke from the house. There was no smoke damage at all,” Blakey said, adding on a humorous note, “The firemen mentioned they had not had a chimney fire drill yet this winter, so I guess they’re all set. I told them I’d send them a bill.”The other lesson is prevention. The home is relatively new, built in 1989 (completed just about the time the tornado hit that section of town). The couple has decided an annual cleaning is in order. The last was in 2009, but this fire was proof that a chimney in good condition and the use of well-seasoned wood may not be enough.They will now also regularly use flue cleaners, which are burned in a fireplace or stove like a log of wood. Blakey said responding Fire Marshal Mike Fitting recommended them as effective in helping to clean creosote from chimneys.
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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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