Think you know your history? I mean know it to the point of being able to answer questions better than other experts and become the champion of History in Catawba County?
Next Tuesday night, May 7th, a game show comes to the almost exact center of Catawba County, North Newton. With the bar open, Buddy’s II will host the first live episode of You Bet Your Newton. County and drinking history are the topics, sometimes in one question. The Historian in Residence will be hosting this odd affair, ready to see who knows their Newton, Hickory, etc.
Photo: You Bet Your Newton comes to Newton.
Teams are a good move, allowing for more brainpower with each answer. For a ten dollar cover charge the winning team gets a ‘Bengy,” a legally tendered picture of Benjamin Franklin, worth approximately 100 dollars. Second prized is a free round of giggle water to console yourself for not being the best contestant in the room. Third prize is a box of Fig Newtons. Fourth prize is a used history book. Fifth is nada.
It’s a scoring system you know, especially if you are a boomer and need an outlet for all those seemingly useless bits of info you picked up along the way. Remember Jeopardy? It’s been off and on television since 1964. That’s the format. Remember to question the answer correctly. Buddy’s II has spared no expense, bringing a professional timing system to clock the competition at one hour. The ding of the best mechanical device available, the Minute Minder, will ring in a winner and tell the losers, you are out of time.
Harsh? Yeah, but we boomers were raised that way. We can take it. If not, come back next week and try again. For three straight weeks, You Bet Your Newton will crown a victor on May 7, 14, and 21.
For taking the time to read this shameless pitch to get you to spend a Tuesday night with my favorite subject, local history, here’s a peep at some of the categories that will be used over the three episodes. There’s the “County-Wide Divide,” “Old Newton,” “Let’s Get Snickery (about Hickory),” and “The Fine Art of Inebriation.”
Research for these questions has come from over a quarter of a century of teaching this stuff. By the way, the night after our first episode of You Bet Your Newton, join us a Patrick Beaver library for a screening of the short documentary, Down The Hill, detailing the six years a local Soap Box Derby competition was held in Hickory. The event is at 6:00pm on May 8 and a real race car from 1971 will be on display. Plus a number of young men, now older will be there to answer questions and swap a few stories.
Who knows, there might be a question about Hickory’s Soap Box Derby. Wanna bet your Newton on it.
