Test Your New Hampshire Trivia Knowledge

By Kathi Caldwell-Hopper

You might have seen her at any one of the Joyce’s Craft Shows taking place in the Lakes Region and beyond in the summer and fall. Joyce Endee has been producing craft shows for years, some indoors and others under big tents in outdoor areas. 

Organizing the well-attended fairs is a lot of work and Joyce explains that she begins planning and public relations efforts for the shows in the early winter. “I have 14 fairs on the schedule and it keeps me busy year round. Most are two-day shows,” she says.

Although this story is not about her craft fairs, they are nevertheless part of the path that led Joyce to her latest venture – a trivia book about New Hampshire. 

With a teaching background, Joyce was a professor at a community college in Nashua, New Hampshire with an emphasis on English and business. After her three children were born, Joyce found it more difficult to get the teaching job she desired. After Joyce and her husband Charlie and their children moved to Gilford, New Hampshire in the early 1990s, she “ended up in the craft fair business.” Many of her vendors sell their creations in all of her fairs, from Wolfeboro to North Conway to the Laconia area and Tilton, as well as southern New Hampshire, which attests to the popularity and success of the shows.

Over the years Charlie handled the computer work that was necessary to produce the shows, but in recent years that has changed. After Charlie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, he was unable to carry out his previous duties and eventually had to enter a local nursing home for skilled care. Joyce visits him every day for lunch, but not having her lifetime partner at home certainly left a huge hole in her life. Although busy, she wanted to find a way to fill in some of her down time and maybe create additional income so her husband could receive at-home care in the future.

The answer - writing a book - made a lot of sense because Joyce has a background in English and she is very organized. If one attends a Joyce’s Craft Show, it is obvious the woman at the helm is a go-getter and isn’t afraid of hard work. And she is willing to try something new if it interests her. Joyce smiles as she says, “I doubt if I will ever retire. I like to keep busy.”

And “keep busy” she has, by writing a book called “501 New Hampshire Trivia Questions & Photos.” The book is currently available on Kindle. (Joyce hopes to have a printed book version out in the near future.) 

“I started researching the book in 2014,” Joyce explains. “I still love to teach, although my job is an event presenter of craft shows. The book is a fun way to educate people. And because it is history-oriented, I learned while doing the research.”

Joyce also wrote the book to supplement her income because the craft business tends to be seasonal, although it keeps her busy nearly year round with pre-planning for the following year. 

“I researched a lot and it took me about four years to complete,” Joyce adds. Part of that research was talking to New Hampshire people about specific areas of interest that could become a trivia question/answer. For example, Joyce talked with the folks at the Mount Washington Weather Observatory to learn how they keep track of weather with instrumentation. It was a great learning experience and definitely got Joyce thinking about something new and interesting.

The trivia questions in the book “start out easy and then become more challenging as the book progresses,” she explains. Accuracy was very important to Joyce when writing the book and she worked hard to vary the trivia questions so that it was family oriented and every age could play. (An easy question, for example, was ‘What is the state flower?’ The answers to the questions follow on the next page; questions get more difficult as the book progresses.)

Information from Joyce at the beginning of the book explains, “This book contains 501 questions and photos based on New Hampshire’s history of people, events, and places. You will have fun individually or on teams as you answer the numerous, educational multiple choice questions. You will learn about New Hampshire and delight in its history and heritage as you read and answer the various questions on history, art, literature, science, sports, geography, animals, government and New Hampshire's famous people and events. You will enjoy the fun of playing a trivia game and will learn a great deal about the awesome State of New Hampshire. The questions are meant to be educational and interesting. Play by yourself or with others.”

All that work delving into New Hampshire’s many aspects meant the book was not just a few pages; indeed it turned out to be quite lengthy. “I researched over 1,000 questions and the book ended up being 253 pages in length,” Joyce says. “I worked on it year round.”

Perhaps immersing herself in the book and doing all that research was a very good thing for Joyce because it filled in the times when she wasn’t working. She also learned a great deal about New Hampshire, from history to the state’s geography to its people and much, much more. “I have always loved New Hampshire and the Lakes Region in particular. And I have always loved the history of the lakes and mountains, so this project was a natural for me.”

Charlie also loves the book and is very proud of Joyce’s efforts. She included her whole family in the project and credits, in the book, her daughter Victoria in particular who helped with the graphics. In the book she writes, “I especially want to thank my wonderful daughter, Victoria, who was extremely instrumental with the necessary computer expertise for the book’s layout and publication. Without exaggeration, I could not have finished it without her.” 

Along with the many trivia questions, Joyce has added some colorful photos to give a complete picture of the state, such as a shot of the Old Country Store in Moultonboro and a photo of the M/S Mount Washington on the waters of Lake Winnipesaukee. The grandeur and splendor of the state’s many regions draw the reader in. If you have not visited each area of the state, the book will make you want to get in your car and head to the White Mountains, the seacoast and other areas of the state.

“I still love to teach,” she reflects. “The book is fun, and it teaches a lot to readers, which fulfills my desire to continue to be an educator.”

It is hoped that Joyce will eventually create enough additional income from the book to provide at-home care for Charlie, something that is very important to her. With a summer and autumn season full of fairs, plus getting the book printed, the future will be busy for Joyce. 

Because she “likes to keep busy” and has no plans to retire, her schedule, it seems, is just the way she likes it.

To learn more about “501 New Hampshire Trivia Questions and Photos” and for a complete list of Joyce’s upcoming craft shows, please visit www.joycescraftshows.com or email joyceendee@gmail.com.

*Buy the book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/501-Hampshire-Trivia-Questions-Photos-ebook/dp/B07DNNHVGY