FALLS VILLAGE — Bob Green, a former racecar driver and creator of the Survive the Drive education program for teens, told local students last week that even the best drivers are always in danger of making a bad mistake.Green was at Housatonic Valley Regional High School Friday, May 11, to talk not just about drunk driving, but distracted driving and plain careless driving.The accompanying slide show included photos of people who survived car crashes relatively intact, and photos of twisted up and burned out vehicles that nobody walked away from.Green emphasized how important it is for all drivers, not just young ones, to be alert and not to try and talk on the phone, or change the CD in the player, or any of the other things that can distract a driver for the mere moment that is necessary for disaster to strike.Green, who taught shop at HVRHS from 1969 to 1978, had young people close to him die in car crashes during his teaching career. He takes it seriously, and doesn’t mince words.He told the students that humans are made up of “meat, bone, blood and brains,” and like a squirrel on the side of the road, the difference between life and death is measured in inches and seconds.After the assembly the students adjourned outside, to stand on the hillside on Warren Turnpike to look down into the parking lot by the agricultural education buildings.There, concrete barriers had been erected, forming sort of a pen.And by remote control, a mid-1990s Chevrolet Cavalier, donated by Chris and Josie Heacox and still bearing a Sharon Pharmacy sign on the driver’s side door, was driven into the barriers.The car went a little right and hit first on the passenger side before heading straight into the block.The hood was crumpled, and the dummies inside were in disarray. Heacox donated the car “because it needed a lot of work,” said Judy Jacobs of Jacobs Garage in Falls Village. “And they thought it would be good for something like this.”The Cavalier was attached to a pickup truck by a length of rope, which went over a chopping block. Once it was started and put into gear, Dalton Jacquier swung an axe, severed the rope, and the car moved forward.The Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department secured the crash scene immediately afterward and, when it was safe, gave teacher Mark Burdick the OK for the kids to come down off the hill and look for themselves.Green, who lives in Lime Rock, does presentations for high school students in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. For more information go to www.survivethedrive.org or call 860-435-1054.
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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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