Spelling

When I was in sixth grade I was a member of a spelling bee team from my elementary school which made it to the finals of a competition sponsored by a local radio station.  It was a BIG DEAL.  We were on the radio, with the final competition being broadcast live from the radio studio.  In those days that was still something.  We came in second, but not, of course, because I spelled anything wrong. {wink, wink}

I was one of four members of the team.  There was another girl -- Sandy somebody, and two boys:  Darwin Cline and Ronald Rose.  I don't know what became of Sandy.  I know that Darwin died at a fairly young age, maybe in his thirties.  Last I knew Ronald was a pediatric dentist in Milwaukee!

With Hubby gone to LaCrosse for the state track finals, I watched a program which the two of us probably would not have watched together, the Scripps National Spelling  Bee.

I still have a competitive streak. I still consider myself to be a pretty good speller.  My hubby is an even better speller.  I sometimes get confused by the various languages I have studied.  Of course, he has studied more languages than I, but rarely seems confused about English spelling.

So during the program I pitted myself against the middle schoolers.  There were many words I couldn't even come close to spelling!  Unfortunately I misspelled ALL the words I heard in the final broadcast rounds EXCEPT confiserie, mauka, gnocchi, epiphysis, tailleur, and juvia.  

I even misspelled the final, winning word, Stromuhr, which is from German. But it wasn't my fault:  I didn't recognize the word because the English pronunciation, or at least the pronunciation of the moderator, did not accurately reflect the German pronunciation!  I could never misspell a German word {smile}.