Peggy and her Pals

Olive Thomas,  c.1927

Sometime in the mid 1980s I happened across a musical group performing in a shopping center. It was led by an Peggy, an octogenarian drummer, and featured a bassist, a banjo player, and an accordionist. They played jolly tunes,  Dick Macko, the accordion player, also sang.

They were great.

I had my boys with me so I couldn’t stay and talk with them, I would have liked to get the story on Peggy. She played her vintage “traps” set in a 1920s style, a style that was ala mode before modern drum techniques eclipsed the now virtually forgotten style.

I had nearly forgotten about the incident until last winter when I ran a search for her and Dick Macko who was, by now, an octogenarian himself. I found out that he was still active, playing at senior centers and tuning pianos. His website stated that he wintered in Arizona, so I thought I’d wait until he returned in the spring to contact him and see if he could give me some background information about Peggy.

I recently searched for Dick and I found his obituary from a couple of months ago, I was too late.

Peggy, the drummer who stayed true to her roots, will probably always remain a mystery.

Here is a nice 2019 video of Dick with a different drummer (who also knows the old style):