S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g B-e-e
Yesterday I went to the school to watch Sydney in the spelling bee. It was a full circle moment watching her compete because – don’t be jealous – I hold the title of 1983 Walker County Spelling Bee Queen of the World. The Queen of the World may be a little exaggerated but I’ve never won any other individual competition in my life and so I hold to my one glory tightly and like to relive it in my mind when I’m feeling unfabulous. Which is more often than I care to admit.
I will never forget the feeling of winning the County competition and my elementary principle going on and on about how proud he was of me. This came in handy for me later when I threw a rock at a mean boy who kept hitting me with his umbrella while we were walking home from school one day. He took off running after he’d whacked me on the legs and I picked up a rock and threw it as hard as I could not ever believing it would actually hit him. Not only did it hit him, it stuck in his head. I didn’t realize how bad it was. All I knew is that he stinkin’ deserved it and I was glad he was crying. (Who was the mean one?) I ran home and never breathed a word about it to my parents. The next day the boy’s twelve foot tall daddy showed up in my classroom door and yelled at the teacher, “WHO THREW THE ROCK THAT HIT MY BOY??!!” I peed my pants. Like really, I did. And then I had to take the long walk of shame to the principal’s office trying to hide my dampness while my dad assured the stupid mean boy’s dad that he would pay for the stitches. The only thing that saved my reputation with the principal that day was that I was Spelling Bee Queen of the World. He comforted me, said he was sure I was only defending myself and so I shouldn’t worry about it any more. Can you spell r-e-l-i-e-f?
Unfortunately, Sydney misspelled the word “talons” (poor baby) and didn’t win today so at least for this year the legacy will not live on. More importantly, I really hope she doesn’t cause harm to anyone in the near future but just in case her principal is our church choir director so maybe she’ll find some favor without a prestigious title.
When I went on to the state spelling bee I ended up getting out on the word ‘lasagna’. Totally missed the ‘g’. Who knew? If the mini-conversation we had on my Facebook is any indication, Syd and I aren’t the only ones scarred for life. It seems like everyone is traumatized by the word they missed in their Bee’s.
Are you?
Why do these memories stick with us so doggedly?! The principal said “bullpen”, but I heard “bull-pant” – twice. Oh, to have been queen! Clearly, I still have issues with the whole thing! :-)
What a great story. For me it was in the 4th grade and the word was CHAIRMEN. I didn’t ask for a sentence or anything and excitedly spelled chairmAn. Ahhh. So close, yet so far. haha
I am not sure I ever entered one…..
I never made it very far in our school’s spelling bee, but a friend of mine made it to the county-wide bee. Our whole class traveled with her to another school in the county. We were so excited for her. She was the first person because she was youngest and her word was brown – which she proudly spelled b-r-w-n.
Being a former yankee, my mouth goes faster than my brain can sometimes process. Therefore, in my speed spelling I misspelled awkward, not once but twice because she asked me to repeat since I spelled it so fast. I left out the second w. Yes, I knew how to spell the word so now every single time I hear it, see it or say it, I am in the 10th grade again!!
In second grade, I won second place (or rather lost first place) with the word “television”. The big trophy helped me suffer through my mom’s constant quizzing of the word television for the next 3 (plus 20) years.
In the fifth grade, I allegedly missed the word “doornail”. Seriously, people, I did spell it correctly with the letter “i” in it… I just said it so quickly out of nervousness and a natural penchant for talking fast that they just didn’t listen fast enough to hear it!
Such trauma…