9th grade district: vicereine (wife of a viceroy). I spelled it “viceraine,” and my French teacher never let me live it down. I came in 4th, solely because of where my name was in the alphabet (ironic, isn’t it?) - every single person missed his or her word in that round.
Originally posted by Icarus
Nice.
I suppose he won?
There were five of us left in the county spelling bee. I got the word “pyramidical”. Based on what I heard I hadn’t the slightest idea of what it was, so I asked them to pronounce it again, and FINALLY I asked for the meaning. Well, that told me that it was just pyramid with an ical on the end, so I was so relieved I rushed through the spelling and left out the “r”. Damn, after all these years that still irritates me.
In the seventh grade school spelling bee, I spelled “gopher” as “gofer.” Everyone laughed really hard, and I couldn’t figure out how that was so funny. Later, someone explained to me that it was because “you look like a gopher!”
The eighth grade school spelling bee was much funnier. The lady says “Belfry.” Hey! I lucked out! But, remember: in these bees, once you say a letter, you can’t go back and change it, no matter what. I have no idea what I was thinking. Here is exactly how I spelled “belfry”:
“B-R-…B-R? WHAT!?! B-E-L-Oh-never-mind.” And I walked briskly off the stage. I think a few people gave me a standing ovation. I got fourth place. What on Earth was I thinking, anyway? “R”???
4th grade: won with “derivative”.
5th grade: eliminated because of misspelling “accelerate”.
Well…I misspelled ARCHERY, however I spelled ARTERY perfectly. It was the tie breaker in 7th grade. I will never forget it. If that !@! would have enunciated properly I could have been the winner but noooo…
She did feel bad for me though, because she looked all sad at me when she told me that I was incorrect.
In third grade, it was stereo. Spelled with only one “e”.
In fifth grade, it was gratitude. Spelled with two "d"s.
Eigth grade was a blur… I took fifth place in the city, but was beaten out by a fifth grader!
…and apparently, as a second-year college student, I can’t spell eighth.
7th grade: ersatz
8th grade: hauberk - I spelled it “hauberc,” which is actually the French spelling. Or something. Whatever.
I love spelling.
Okay, to the point: the word I missed, in the county bee, was “skein”. And I knit! But in sixth grade, it had never occurred to me to call it anything other than a “ball of yarn”.
Now, my story. In sixth grade, my friend Susan and I were the best spellers in the class. She ALWAYS beat me. ALWAYS. I never beat her in the class bees, not once. We joked about how in the school bee, she would win and I would come in second, and we would both get to go to the city bee (top two from every school got to participate in the citywide bee). Anyway, on the day of the school bee, everyone who was going to participate stayed in at recess to practice (we had an extremely long list of the words they would use). The one word no one could spell was “sauerkraut”. Every time anyone walked into the room, we would should, “Can you spell sauerkraut?” And no one could. And then we would chant the correct spelling at them. Anyway, cut to the bee. Susan and I are the last people left, and she missed “moccasin.” The rules were that I needed to spell her word correctly, and the next word correctly to win. I got moccasin, and held my breath for the next word. And it was…sauerkraut. Behind me, I could hear Susan kind of laugh helplessly. So, I won, and we did both go to the city bee. Which I won again (she got sauerkraut this time). We both qualified to go to the county bee, I placed fourth (goddamn skein) and she got seventeenth or something. Our teacher was proud to bursting - she had never had any students go to the county bee, let alone two. It was cool, we were in the paper and everything. I still have the ribbons and trophy.
8th Grade. Spokane County Spelling Bee. Misspelled “spaghetti” my first at bat (left out the “h”). Got a ribbon. Retired to obscurity.
I have to concur with the “spelling gene” theory. Two of my kids are good spellers and two or not. No connection that I can see to other analytical skills.
I would also like to take a moment and honor PRNYouth (did I spell that right?) for his spelling of luau. Looow! It’s a good thing I wasn’t drinking my 7-Up when I read that.
In the fifth grade, I missed “million”. I spelled it right, but I forgot to SAY it before I spelled it.