I recently became aware that birds, like people, have different walks. Boing! Boing! Boing! That would be a sparrow and sometimes a robin. Robins also do the road runner, a rapid fire racing gait that suddenly pulls up short. Crows are strollers and only occasionally hoppers. Crows actually seem to prefer walking to flying. They spend a lot of time on the ground plodding along, looking to the left and to the right for something good to eat. This is not as hard as it sounds. Crows are not real fussy.I know people who kind of “boing” along on the balls of their feet, almost on their toes. It is very disconcerting to us flat footers. They seem to be out of control with their runaway gait, often leaning slightly forward. They need good brakes. I also know those who walk like crows. It is a relaxed motion, sometimes incorporating the splayed duck foot, feet ahead of the body, kind of like a back-slash. When I was a kid, the cop on the beat walked like that. He could keep this up for hours, looking here and there for something good to eat while preserving the peace. He was a little fussy. For instance, he drew the line at road kill, but was not above a stale doughnut.A lot of people do the duck walk thing, feet splayed at a 45 degree angle. It is a puzzle to me. You expend the same amount of effort as a straight ahead step, but only go about two-thirds as far. This effectively increases the distance of any hike by 50 percent as the duck walks. The crow may fly in a straight line, but even they lose some ground when walking as they are a bit pigeon-toed. I figure they lose maybe one-fifth as they are not very pigeon-toed. Pigeons (obviously) are. It’s a wonder they don’t trip over themselves. One leg has to hurdle the other. I have read that the early Iroquois Indians, when traveling on business, used an easy, loping motion that would eat up the miles while turning their toes inward to minimize tripping hazards. I’ll bet they caught what-for when they got home because this probably wore out the edge of the moccasins prematurely and it was the little woman who had to chew half a deer hide (admittedly an acquired taste) to make new ones.Finally we come to the stork, the John Cleese of the bird world. His silly walk (Cleese or the stork, either one works) has inspired a generation (mine) to, well, be silly. Oh. You already noticed.Bill Abrams resides, and ruminates on feathered follies, in Pine Plains.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
Provided
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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