Spelling Bees

There are some stories on this thread:

Howard Scripps Spelling Bee

in 4th grade i went out fairly late in the local on 'peninsula'. in 5th grade i went to state (my confidence shattered from the last competition, i only did the thing because my dad promised me a nintendo 64 game for every round i won so i got shadows of the empire & some other game i cant remember what now). in 6th grade i went out early in the local because i spelled 'grasp' 'g-r-a-r-a-s-p' without realizing it. i still remember the feeling of total shock when the high school english teacher told me i was disqualified. i feel like 6th grade is the last year to compete but there was some year after that where my class begged me to represent & i refused so maybe i have the years wrong. obviously these were some of the defining points of my life & they both torture & comfort me to this day.

8th grade is the last year to compete.

bees can't spell!

yeah, they're only good at dying.

Got knocked out with RHYTHM in the county bee in 1977. I spelled it "rhythym." But I won savings bonds that cashed out to $300 in the couple of years before that, plus dictionaries and Cross pen sets.

"Rhythm" is a great word for winning games of Hangman.

At least that's what I thought until the day I dashed out six blanks, and my wife rolled her eyes at me before answering "Is it 'rhythm'?"

I won the county in 7th grade (1972), went to state and nervously "misspelled" QUIZ (by hanging onto that ZEEEE sound for too long). That was okay by me, after I got over the shock and shame of being a LOSER.

B E E S

B-E-E-ZEEEEEEEEE

If there's lolcode, there should be 1337 Beez.

I won in the 4th grade. i flubbed "heighten," somehow, in the 5th and then "hosiery" (i just knew i'd seen it as "hoisery) in the 6th.

i just watched the HS finals and I was batting like .800. i did get the winning word right, serrifine

um serrefine that was a typo ok

haha

There should be an anti-spelling bee, where the best misspelled words win.

I also blew a first grade spelling bee on "school", and by misspelling it the same way. I wasn't looking at it on the wall though. More likely I was looking out the window. Somehow I won my school spelling bees in 7th and 8th grade, and I went on to state level in 8th but got destroyed there.

anti-spelling bee.

spell 'horrible'.

W H O R E B U L L.

In fifth grade, I was the only boy left after the first round, so naturally I had a tiny fan club rooting for me. I made it to the last round but lost on "experiment."

I wish we had spelling bees, I would've aced that.

so not ever gonna happen for this dude, awkward interview with spelling bee champ

I got 1st and went to county in 7th grade... i remember one year, i got out on the word surveillance. and to this day, always sort of shudder when i see that word.