I will speak, after all, about old age and death — two ineluctable realities we fear the most and try our hardest not to think about.If — like me — you have more than 70 years, you probably have seen your physical self dwindling, and felt it grown creaky. Maybe a few inches of height have been lost. Most likely you stoop a bit.Old age seems to creep up on people, surprise them. “Oh, that’s down the road!” we say. Our parents got old — sadly for us — but we believed ourselves middle-aged. Safe. At least until age 65, when we started refusing to classify our age, or stopped thinking about it at all, if we could. But our parents died, and then no buffer stood between us and you-know-what. And the thoughts would come.Even if our minds still remain sharp, we worry that the sharpness will go away — inescapably, precipitously and too soon. For we have watched helplessly as close family members fell into the grasp of that horrible malady first identified by Dr. Alzheimer. While we may show no sign of having fallen into its clutches, how near does it lurk? And medical science, for all its advances, has not found a way to save us, if that veil descends.At times, have you not fancied hearing the snickering of Prufrock’s Footman? Or at least wondered how close by he stands? My parents both died at 90, and that should be a comfort, but my sister died within the same 12 months, and she was but 63. The Reaper can cut whenever — and wherever — he damn well pleases. We may protest that we have much to do. After all, the great American educator Horace Mann famously warned: “Until you have done something for humanity, you should be ashamed to die.” Like King Ethelred, we all are all unready. But the Reaper says, “So what?”When despair begins to take hold amid such wintry thoughts, Britain’s poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, shows us the way forward in his eternal “Ulysses.” Most remember its protagonist as Odysseus, the contriver of that brilliant stratagem — the Trojan Horse — that brought a seemingly endless war to a close. We recall how many trials lay before him before he could reach home, where his faithful wife, Penelope, and dutiful son, Telemachus, awaited him.Tennyson has his hero describe his tortuous travels this way:For always roaming with a hungry heartMuch have I seen and known; cities of menAnd manners, climates, councils, governments,Myself not least, but honoured of them all....Ulysses has drunk “life to the lees.” Greatly has he suffered, “both with those that loved [him] and alone.” He wants to do more, but knows he does not have much time. “Little remains: but every hour is saved/ From that eternal silence, something more,/ A bringer of new things.”He wants to live those last days fully and well. “Death closes all: but something ere the end,/ Some work of noble note, may yet be done....” So “Come my friends,/ ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world....”Though much is taken, much abides; and thoughWe are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.That’s the way, my friends. We can all, in our own ways, be heroes. If there is little time left, then our deeds are just that much more heroic. Let’s get out there!Charles R. Church is an attorney practicing in Salisbury who focuses primarily on Guantanamo Bay, detention, torture, habeas corpus and related issues.
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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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