My mother loved trivia. That might be obvious to anyone who knows how obsessed I am with it.

But in 1954, when I was born, trivia wasn’t a particularly big deal.

Yes, there were quiz shows – some of which were rigged to give the answers to contestants. But there weren’t a lot of outlets for trivia.

For one thing, there wasn’t as much of it. The amount of trivial content exploded with the advent of television, the proliferation of entertainment options and the expansion of professional sports.

Also booming was the population. The biggest generation in history had a shared past in common and seemed very interested in what about it they remembered.

Trivia as a source of game-playing and entertainment didn’t really take hold until the 1960s, when college students realized there were interesting – to trivialists – questions to be asked about old TV shows and baseball players.

One of the first manifestations of the trivia boom was “Jeopardy!,” which debuted in 1964. It was a daytime TV show that allowed trivia experts to show off their knowledge by making them come up with the questions for the answers given.

About 20 years later, Trivial Pursuit made trivia an obsession. The board game was once so popular that copies sold for $40 apiece and were really hard to come by.

In the 21st century, trivia is a social phenomenon. A few years back, my kids and I invaded a Rockland brewpub and wiped out the reigning champs. My mother heartily approved.

By the way, it’s Ouagadougou.