Peterborough native Jimmy Smith will host a “Jeopardy”-style “People of Peterborough” trivia night at the Union Congregational Church in Peterborough on Wednesday, July 16, at 6 pm.
The event is free and open to the public. All are welcome to come hear stories about well-known Peterborough residents from days gone by.
Along with asking Ledger-Transcript readers to send in names, Smith has been working with longtime Peterborough residents Dottie Evans and Margaret McCormick to generate names of well-known Peterborough residents from the 1950s and 1960s.
“This event is turning out to be 1,000 times better than I ever thought it would,” Smith said July 9. “As of today, I have a list of 108 names. Dottie and Mrs. McCormick both have amazing recall, and they both just love Peterborough. What happened was one of them would bring up a name, and then we would start talking about it, and then we would think of a bunch of other names.”
Smith says the web of personal connections is what he misses most about his hometown.
“One of the names we have on the list is of a lady in town who fed meals to then ‘hobos’ who came in trains,” Smith said. “She did it out of the kindness of her heart, and not a lot of people knew about it.”
Wednesday night’s trivia format will take a slightly different format than previous events, with Smith presenting facts about Peterborough residents and asking the audience to guess the names.
“These names will all be familiar to anyone who grew up in the area — and they’re not all Peterborough names — or who lived here at that time,” Smith said. “I’m finding fun facts about all of them, some things people maybe didn’t know. People have come up with really wonderful suggestions, and I think it’s going to be a really great evening.”
Smith says has learned new facts in the process of collecting names for the event.
“I have learned a bunch of new things; for example, I did not realize that my first-grade teacher used to save her spare change and take it into Nonie’s and to buy candy to give to her students,” Smith said.
Smith says he has heard from more people while planning this trivia night than with any of his previous events.
“I think this is event will turn out even better than the one I did on Peterborough businesses from that era,” he said. “Every name we get, it just make us think of another person.”
Smith has had a long career in mental health counseling and inspirational speaking, and has won numerous awards for his contributions to the community, including being nominated for the national Jefferson Award for Volunteerism, an award created by Jacqueline Kennedy in to honor outstanding volunteers.
“Everything I have is thanks to Peterborough; it propelled me into a pretty good career,” he said. “It is just a very special place.”