For a while back there in 1978, I was really feeling my oats. You know the Spelling Bee? Probably sponsored by your local newspaper, usually for 4th-8th graders with a national championship in Washington? Yeah, I was the Dayton city champion that year.
I had been the school champion in the 7th grade, but finished 6th in the city, which wasn't too bad. I mean, the city championship had all the Dayton public school winners, plus all the private school winners in the city, close to 60 schools.
In the 8th grade, I was my school winner again, and the city bee came down to me and the previous year's winner, my old nemesis from the Hillel Academy (who was probably in the city championship every year he was eligible -- hey, that's just how it is at those tiny schools). He misspelled rathskeller with an "ar" at the end. Maybe it was just that it was so close to the end of the word, but it seemed like they buzzed him on the "ar" instead of waiting for him to finish. Either way, I had never heard the word or seen the word, but I spelled it like I would guess it would be spelled, being sure to try "er" at the end. And I nailed it. Then, as per the rules when only two people are left, I had to spell one more word. A day later I couldn't have told you what that word was, but it was amazingly simple. I won.
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| Main Hallway of Cleveland Elementary School, Dayton, Ohio, 1978 |
Was this the greatest thing I would ever do? Would I ever reach such heights again? I haven't gone on to rob drug stores or beat up transvestites, but I'll leave the question of whether I peaked too soon in life to the historians.
I went on to finish 4th in the regional championship, against a 30 person field, many of whom only had to be the champion of a couple schools to be their county winner and reach this level. (Not that that's their fault. It's the system, man!) And the word I missed on was so small and simple, it's amazing it was tossed out so late in the game, when there were only 4 people left. Frond. Frond. Frond. Never heard of it. Never seen it. So I took my best shot and spelled it like fraud with an "n". The bitter sting of that defeat haunts me to this day.
