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 Peggy, Zachary, and Baboose, November 1997 |
They more or less vanished from the Big Fun scene after that, occasionally emerging to prepare a dinner or so Zach could participate in punk rock mayhem.
On a road trip to Norfolk in late May of 1996, Zach was riding in a car driven by an intoxicated Josh Smith. When it was pulled over, a suspicious cop found 30 hits of acid in a cigarette pack under Zach's seat. A legal nightmare began, with Zach having to make constant court appearances on the other end of the state. It was frightening and expensive, but through it all, Peggy and Zach were optimistic and cheerful. The charges dwindled away gradually and in the end, after well over a year in the courts, Zach's punishment was relatively light. At first we'd feared he could serve as much as 30 years for his alleged crimes.
In June of 1996, Peggy and Zach impulsively married each other. In Zach's typically mysterious way, he explained it with, "it was something to do."
After the decline and fall of Big Fun in July of 1996, Peggy and Zach moved into a scruffy basement apartment on Altamont Street near the Downtown Mall. For a time, Matthew Hart lived with them in an adjacent crawl space. But he was discovered and evicted and for whatever reason, Peggy and Zach also abandoned the place, leaving it (as was their typical style) in complete disarray. For a time they toured the country, going as far as Mexico. Finally they returned to live in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with Peggy's every-tolerant mother and father (a former nun and a former monk).
When Kappa Mutha Fucka began in June of 1997, Peggy and Zach were on hand from the beginning. They humbly asked the rent-paying residents (Matthew, Leah, Deya and myself) if they could move into the back porch in exchange for something (whatever that was, I'm sure it was never paid). I gradually became sick of their presence, since they didn't appear to be looking for work even while they drained our resources, used our facilities, and occupied our space. They seemed to embody the height of irresponsibility, and I became increasingly infuriated. I didn't understand their lax attitude at all, especially in the light of Zach's ongoing legal problems and the fact that a baby was on the way.
Yes, a baby. From the very beginning of her relationship with Zach, Peggy had it in her head that she wanted to have a baby. The two used no form a birth control at all, but even so, it took over a year for her to finally conceive. Being the sort of person I am, I was dismayed by the idea of having a baby when you have no resources to support it. It seemed to me that Peggy wanted a plaything, a pet, that she had no idea that this was a human on the way.
The baby, code-named "the Baboose," was born in mid September, 1997. It was a boy, and an apparently healthy one at that. As of late January, 1997, it he not yet received an official name. Peggy is not one to make hasty decisions.
Now Peggy and Zach live surrounded by orchards in a basement apartment in one of the few occupied houses atop Carter's Mountain, a local prominence immediately south of Charlottesville. Zach has a full time job, although for a long time, most of Peggy and Zach's support came from Peggy's extremely indulgent mother.
Zachary's definition in the Big Fun Glossary, July 1996.