In pursuit of Nahant history

NAHANT – Some might call schooling residents on a community’s history a trivial pursuit, but the Nahant Historical Society is game to try.”There is a book, ?A Child’s History of Nahant,’ that is used to teach third-graders about the history of the town,” said Historical Society member Robert Risch. “We thought you should have a fun way to do it too – for kids and adults.”The result is a tiny package, just large enough to hold 3-inch-by-5-inch index cards and labeled “Nahant Historical Pursuit, A Game of History.”Risch said it really started because he found the tiny file folders on sale for 89 cents each. Modeled after Trivial Pursuit, the game includes a tiny color-coded spin board, a stack of color-coded questions and directions that insist that the player with the last name closest to the end of the alphabet begins the game, “because they never get to go first in anything.”Over afternoon tea and cookies, society members put together questions in six categories, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, 2000s and general.Risch credits town historian Calantha Sears with coming up with the majority of the questions off the top of her head. Carol Nelson said often it was the alternatives to the questions rather than the questions themselves that were most amusing.One questions asks players “what was first lit” on a given date – the choices are “a light house,” “street light” or “the men in town,” Risch said.Another questions asks what is the longest street in town.”That’s a trick question,” Risch said, smiling. “Everyone says Nahant Road, but that’s a road. It’s Summer Street because it has the extension.”Once he had the questions in place, Nelson offered to type all of the questions and answers into the computer, but it took a boy to formulate it.”James Ward III came over,” Risch said. “We said, ?we have all this data, can you put it in a format we can use?’ He wrote a program.”Once they had the program in place, they realized they needed a printer that could print on both sides of a page and in came Pauline Anderson, Risch said.”It was serendipitous,” Risch said. “There were so many people that helped out on this.”Patty Demit, Lynn McKnight, Johnny Zimmerman-Ward, Katy and Nicolas Bishop and Bonnie D’Orlando all pitched in, and the game was tested on society members and the public at large as well, Risch said.”We had a debugging round, and Calantha won, she answered six correct questions in a row,” Risch said.”And not all of them were obvious,” Nelson added.While the group was hoping to have the game ready last Christmas, it took longer than anyone anticipated, nearly two years to turn out the final project.”It was a lot of fun,” Risch said. “We got really wrapped up in it.”The game is on sale at the Historical Society, $25 each and the proceeds go to the society. The society, located at 41 Spring Road, is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the first Sunday of every month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.”It wouldn’t hurt to get people talking about the history of the town,” Risch said.”And you won’t find this in any mall, baby,” D’Orlando added.