Peterborough native Donald “Jimmy”  Smith, who is well-known for his nostalgic Peterborough trivia nights, will be back in town for three weeks in July.

This summer, Jimmy will be taking a different approach to Peterborough-area trivia.

“A friend of mine said, ‘Well, Jimmy, you don’t want people to burn out on it,’” he said. “So I tried to think of something a little different.”

Jimmy is requesting that readers of the Ledger-Transcript send in names of prominent or beloved citizens from Peterborough and surrounding towns in the 1950s and 1960s. 

“I would love to get five names each of people who made Peterborough ‘a good town to live in,’” he said. “I don’t think there will be a name from that era that is not familiar to me.”

Once he has the names, Jimmy will write clues about the person and let the audience try to guess who they are.

“Here’s one: who was an Army colonel, a school nurse, was a Bennington resident and had her own maple syrup business?” Jimmy said. “Another one: is who owned a drugstore and was also the fire chief? Or, who was a business owner who coached Little League and took all the kids to a baseball game in Boston every year?” 

In the past, Jimmy’s trivia nights focused on 1950s- and 1960s-era businesses and owners, but this event will include any well-known people in the Peterborough area.

“They don’t have to be business owners; they can just anyone who was part of the community who everyone knew and could count on,” he said. “People like Jim Grant; he was a school principal and a fireman and he started a business.” 

Smith also has fond memories of Greenfielders from his childhood. 

“In Greenfield, you had the Carbees, and they had their store there – they were just wonderful,” he said. “Back in the day, when Greenfield had the Wing Ding, it was like Times Square for the weekend. You could barely even get into Greenfield during the Wing Ding.” 

Smith said he always knows when it is someone from the old days calling him, because only his Peterborough friends call him “Jimmy.” Even his name is a Peterborough story.

“I was named after Dr. Donald Park, the doctor who delivered me at Monadnock Hospital. I was supposed to be James Donald Smith, but it got switched to Donald James on the birth certificate,” he said. 

When I spoke to Jimmy, he and his wife Connie had just driven 1,300 miles from their former home in Ohio back to their retirement home in Sun City, Fla. They went back to Ohio to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with family and old friends.

While he was back in Ohio  these past few weeks, Jimmy had an experience that reminded him of Peterborough in the old days.

“My wife was at a jewelry store – it’s a store run by the third generation, just like Hobbes. While she was looking at jewelry, I walked up to the courthouse, where I used to work, to say hi to people. My wife came and found me, and she showed my the bracelet she had picked out, and it still had the tags on it. They let her walk down the street and show it to me and I thought, ‘That’s just like Peterborough,’” he said. 

To help Jimmy with People of Peterborough, please send five names to jtimmons@ledgertranscript.com or  call 603-924-7172.  The exact time and date of the trivia night will be announced in July. 

July 4 celebration keeps getting better

Greenfield’s  July 4 celebrations have ebbed and flowed over the years. Back in the day, as Smith remembers, the town’s Wing Ding celebration was a huge regional event. Longtime residents remember a helicopter landing on the lawn by the Greenfield Inn one year, thousands of people attending the parade, carnival rides on the common and the legendary chicken barbecue.  

The Wing Ding ran for about 30 years, but, like every small town event, it relied completely on volunteers. At a certain point, things change, people age out and there is not always a new crew of people to take over.

After the Wing Ding folded, there was not a heck of a lot happening on July 4 in Greenfield for a number of years. But, as things changed again, a new group of volunteers, including the Oak Park Committee, the Fire Department, the Fire Association and the Recreation Department, stepped up to start new traditions.

This year, family events at Oak Park will start at 10 a.m. on July 4 with a slip-and-slide, sprinklers and tie-dying at Oak Park. There will be a children’s parade around the Oak Park track. 

The third annual Guns and Hoses softball game between the Fire Department and the Police Department starts at noon at Oak Park. The event is a fundraiser for the Fire Department. Supporters can order a T-shirt supporting either fire or police, or both, to wear at the game. To order a T-shirt, go to companycasuals.com/gunsandhoses.

Volunteers from the  Oak Park committee will be selling barbecue, hot dogs and burgers at Oak Park kitchen during the events. 

Thanks to Greenfield’s “Ungrateful Colonists” (Dave  Thimmel, Jarvis Adams, Marcus Dube and Joey Long), Greenfield now has an incredible public fireworks display! The “Colonists” are now taking donations to help pay for the display. Donors can leave cash or a check in Thimmel’s egg box at the house directly across from Harvester Market or can Venmo Dave at @Marc-Thimmel.  

People can watch the display from the lawn the inn, the library lawn or the town common. (Please be respectful of the parking for the restaurant!) 

Anyone giving over $250 will be mentioned as a sponsor before the singing of the National Anthem.

All donations are very gratefully accepted, since a large public display like this runs many thousands of dollars. The display will be shot off from the lawn at the Greenfield Inn sometime after 9 p.m. or whenever it is dark.  

From, 6 to about 9 p.m., Greenfield’s own Boogie Men will play live music on the porch of the Greenfield Inn. The singing of the National Anthem will take place at 9 p.m. After the fireworks, there will be fire juggling display at Oak Park.