Jimmy Smith probably forgotten more facts about the local area than most people know – but it actually seems as though he hasn’t forgotten anything.
The Peterborough native hosted a “Jeopardy”-style “People of Peterborough” trivia night July 16, where the audience as well as Smith demonstrated keen and fond memories of people in the region from the 1950s and 1960s.
The event at Union Congregational Church was free and open to the public. One catalyst was a list of 30 residents of the area was shared with him – names only – and Smith was able to provide at least one-sentence descriptions of 27 of them. These weren’t people who will show up in New Hampshire history books, either.
“He was the milkman on High Street,” said Smith, answering one question that nobody got.
The crowd of a dozen picked numbers out of a basket that corresponded to a description of an individual that Smith read, such as “This person owned the first laundromat in Peterborough,” and people wrote down their guesses as to who it was. Smith created the challenges from memory, and a fair number of people had correct answers, which prompted everyone to toss in their memories of the people and locations.
When some people called out the correct answer to one question, Don Parkhurst of Peterborough added, “And I lived next door to him!”
“This was a female doctor on High Street whose specialty was treating children with asthma.”
“Dr. Margaret Reynolds, “ was the answer that perhaps half the crowd knew.
“This person owned the first ski tow in Peterborough.”
“Howard Whitcomb,” several people called out.
The event was sprinkled with warm anecdotes. One that Smith shared was of veterinarian Forrest F. Tenney who treated many pets by making house calls in his pink Cadillac. One day, a boy came to him with a chipmunk that was his pet, and the vet was flummoxed as to how to treat him. The boy looked worried, and when the procedure to save the critter was done, the boy asked how much the fee was.
“Nothing,” said Smith, recalling Tenney’s response. “He told the boy ‘Thank you for reminding me why I became a vet.’”
Most people got the right answer about a famous camera inventor who lived locally — Edwin Land, who founded Polaroid, but there was a friendly debate over who held the record for most letters to the editor that the Ledger-Transcript received.
Smith grew up in Peterborough and worked as a mental health counselor and inspirational speaker. He has received the National Jefferson Award for Volunteerism. He lives in Florida, but returns to Peterborough several times a year to Along with asking Ledger-Transcript readers to send in names, Smith worked with longtime Peterborough residents Dottie Evans and Margaret McCormick to generate names
Laurel Deschenes traveled from Nashua to partake in the event.
“My father grew up in Peterborough, and I heard a lot of his stories,” she said.
As obscure as some of the questions might have seemed — such as a milkman from the 1950s — Peterborough’s Don Parkhurst said that they were pretty fair.
“And having to think back on all this gets the cobwebs out of the brain,” he said.