Members of the Council on Aging team, "Bees in our Bonnets", are ready for the competition.

It was a cold, rainy Saturday night but Memorial Hall was nearly filled with spectators. Big, fat paper bumblebees floated above each table and mini spelling bees could be overheard as contestants quizzed each other in last minute panic. Every year there are a few more teams entered; this year there were 35 teams with 3 members each for a total of 105 "expert" (at least in their own minds) spellers.

All contestants receive the official spelling book about a week before the contest. The words are divided into categories and then each page is divided into Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced words. There are approximately 30 pages of words so my teammates and I decided to each study 10 pages so at least one of us would probably recognize every word. It seemed like a surefire plan. Unfortunately, it didn't work. After spelling three common words, camouflage, calculate, and prolonger, the spelling master gave us a word none of us recognized and, we were so stunned, we not only spelled it incorrectly, but promptly forgot what it was! The definition was so long that we could not absorb it in the few seconds we had to listen to it, and the sentence he used to help us understand it was something about a crocodile sinking in a swamp. So we too quietly sank into the background.

Silver Stringer Ella Letterie (second from the left) joined members of the Joyce family in the spectator section.

But 102 other contestants had the same problem with equally difficult words and went down to defeat, leaving the team called Spelling Bee-bees to claim the Bee-baskets as the winners.  Representing the Beebe Elementary School were Suzanne Guirakhoo, Teresa Scioletti, and Barbara Krol-Sinclair who were sponsored by Pauli's Restaurant. The winning word was "fraise," meaning a defensive barrier of inclined pointed stakes or barbed wire.

"Floating Bees" decorated the hall for the Sixth Annual Spelling Bee.

As I have said before, I am fascinated by the mentality of the spelling bee-ers. They all go in intending and believing that they will win. The majority go down to defeat, and as they are walking off the stage, they all say, "I'll be back next year."

April 7, 2000