SHARON — Memorial Day celebrations have always been important to the town of Sharon, and First Selectman Robert Loucks can attest to that. Loucks grew up in Sharon, marching in the annual Memorial Day parade as a drummer in the Sharon Center School band. Now, a U.S. Navy veteran, Loucks helps organize the day of remembrance. “It’s an important event that people need to be reminded of,” he said. “You know, freedom is not free.” Though towns across the country remember veterans once a year, it is memorials such as the Sharon Veterans Memorial that create a daily reminder. The Sharon Veterans Memorial was built in 1994 and sits at the intersection of routes 4 and 44 on Main Street. It lists approximately 1,100 veterans who served in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Panama, Grenada and Desert Storm. The monument is made of granite so that other names may be carved into the memorial.“Everyday more boys and young Americans are lost,” Loucks said. “For this Mideast war we will be making up a list.”Another daily reminder is American Legion Post No. 126, named after an important Sharon veteran, Herbert G. Klebes. Klebes was a young U.S. Marine who served in World War I at the 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood in France. The 26-day battle against the Germans was damaging to both sides. The United States alone suffered 1,811 casualties. Klebes was one of them. Historians say the battle was an important victory for the U.S. during a time when Germany seemed invincible. Although the Legion post and memorial are there for all to see every day, it is services and celebrations such as those held on Veterans Day and Memorial Day that remind us to look at them and remember.“We need to make people aware of the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf,” Loucks said.This Memorial Day, May 30, the parade down Main Street will begin at 10 a.m. An Air Force flyover is expected during the ceremony.
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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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