Nancy:  What drew you to the '40s and '50s?  The music is very different from what's popular today.

Peggy:  We actually met when we both answered an ad for a big band wanting singers.  We both liked the music, but once we really started singing it, we were hooked.  Then when we started buying the clothing from the era, we were really hooked. 

I even went a step further as most of my house is furnished with '30s and '40s furniture.  I have a '40s electric range that is wonderful and a mauve mohair couch.   I have bark cloth curtains, restaurant dishes ... the whole works, and as my son says, I think I was born in the wrong era. 

I also have a house full of VETERANS' pictures.  If I see a picture of a man in uniform at an antique store, I just snap it up and put it on my wall.  These men need a place of honor and I have some good looking guys on my
wall.  It is truly the era of the Greatest Generation.

Nancy:  Why do you call your vocation a "ministry"?

Peggy:  Music is truly a language that breaks all barriers.  Music is a gift from God.   We take music and share it with others, and we have never charged a fee.  Any donations that are given go back into the ministry. 

We focus on '30s and '40s and '50s music.  We sing for many organizations, but our focus is on nursing homes, retirement centers, focusing on Alzheimer's patients and our VETERANS, especially [from] WWII and the Korean War. 

We have seen people who are lost behind the disease of Alzheimer's come alive when we sing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy or Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree.  One woman had not spoken for over a year and was dancing and singing by the time we left.  That is truly a ministry.

Nancy:  How did you decide to devote a large portion of your lives to this work?

Peggy:  Rachell and I have both sung since we were children.  We both are Christians and since we love music, we want to do something different with our talent.  We both have sung and still sing in church.  We truly believe God brought us together five years ago so we could work together to touch the lives of others.

Nancy:  Your website, vintagememoirs.com, and performances are labor intensive and not inexpensive to produce, yet you only accept donations.  Have people been supportive? 

Peggy:  I can't tell you how wonderful people are.  We have never charged a fee.  Even for private parties, we simply say if you want to donate, that is fine.  I think in five years we have only had a small number of occasions when we did not receive donations. 

Many state run nursing homes do not have the funds to pay for
entertainment.  These are the people [the residents] who need it the most.  Many of them [are] without families and the visitors are few.  We would never want to put money as a criteria for our God given talent. 

The wonderful people of Kansas City came to our [aid] when we wanted to go to Hawaii to be the USO girls for the USS Arizona Survivors.  We
simply rented a theater and had two shows.  The local TV station did a small spot and then the local newspapers did a story.  We did not charge a fee but simply let people donate.  That they did ... $2,500 and we were on our way to Hawaii. 

I truly think people have shared more than if we charged a fee.  God has truly blessed us as we have used our talent to serve Him. 

Nancy:  Your veterans' tribute pages are impressive.  How did you decide to provide this service?

Peggy:  Once we started the ministry and began to focus on '30s and '40s music, we began to fall in love with the wonderful VETERANS.  This passion intensified, and now VETERANS are our main focus. 

The patriotism we now feel has increased tremendously as we
have met true heroes and heard their stories.  I began to do the honor pages as a way to pay tribute to these wonderful men and women.  I always give master copies to the family, as many as they want, and then put a page on the web site.  It is such an honor to remember these wonderful men and women who have given us so much.  

Nancy:  What songs do you enjoy the most?  Why?

Peggy:  Probably the ones that bring the biggest smiles from our audience and the ones that really bring the elderly back.

A couple at a nursing home began to cuddle and kiss when we sang Apple Blossom Time.  They gazed into each others eyes, hugged, and even kissed several times.  We could tell it was their song.  When we finished, the lady yelled out, "Sing it again.  He hasn't done that in 50 years." 

I have to say Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is probably number one.  We have
sung it on the street, in cars, and even in the bathroom at Pearl Harbor while we were waiting in line and had a request. 

Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree, Sentimental Journey, and [we get] a lot of requests for Andrews Sisters songs.  I can't think of too many songs from that era that were not good.

Nancy:  Please share an anecdote about a performance that touched people's hearts.

Peggy:  We both work and only do this in our spare time.  We had a lady call us and we were booked.  But she said her dad was a WWII pilot and retired from the Air Force.  He was in a semi-coma at home, and his wife was pretty fragile, too.  It was their 59th wedding anniversary, and they wanted us to come to the house and sing.  We cleared our schedule and did spend the evening singing songs for them.  During a song that was
special to them, he squeezed his wife's hand, and then he died 20 minutes after midnight.  She died within a month.  The family has been so wonderful to let us know how much that meant to them.

I also had a man in an Alzheimer's unit that thought he dated me in 1941 and was sure I was the woman who ran off with someone else while he was at war.  He was pretty angry.  We hear so many times how we look like someone somebody knew from that era.  I finally assured him it was not me.  As I hugged him I said, "I would never leave a good looking guy like you.  She must have been nuts."  That seemed to work.

It is wonderful to see a big smile come over someone's face, and they begin to sing along and know every word of some song that sweeps them away to younger years.  We see tears, smiles, and even sometimes someone comes back for a brief moment to a world that seems familiar when most of the time they are lost.  What more reward could one ask for?  A ministry that blesses us more than we could possibly bless anyone else.

Nancy:  What else would you like people to know about you?

This last year I purchased a picture of a VETERAN at a local flea market and with it came a picture of his wife.  The owner of the store knew me and gave me a number of their love letters and scrap books.  Come to find out, he died years ago and his wife had no family and they had no children.  I began to research and found she is an Alzheimers patient in a local nursing home.  I have more or less adopted her and now go and see her on a regular basis.  She has no family and nobody comes to see her anymore.  As I read the letters she wrote as a young woman full of hope and dreams, she said I just want to be a good Christian, a good wife and a good mother.  I felt like I knew her through her letters.  I truly believe God sent me those pictures so I could help Him watch over "Helen" as she is here on the earth.  [This is] a true ministry as we are God's hands and voices.

We thank God for the talent He has given to us and for bringing us together for such a unique ministry in which we have touched hundreds and hundreds of lives in the last five years. 

We truly respect and love this generation before us and have come to realize many of the hardships they faced.  Especially during the war years.   The women worked so hard to support the men at war as they left their homes and began working.  The men wanted to serve this country and were proud to fight for freedom.  We love each of you, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your part in making this the land of the free and the home of the brave.  God bless you and God Bless America, land that I love.