SPELLING

I have always been proud of my ability to spell words correctly. If there are any misspelled words in a newspaper article or on television advertisements, I always catch them. The older I get, the more I find myself doubting my spelling. I'm sure I will make mistakes writing this blog.

When Behm's father was president of the Pioneer Association he had to write a welcome letter to be published in the Pioneer book. I typed the letter & checked several times to make sure there weren't any mistakes. When the book came out, I hurriedly checked the letter & one misspelled word jumped out at me. I worried about that word the rest of the night. As soon as we arrived home, I checked the copy of the letter we sent. There were no mistakes.

This year in the memorial ad for Behm's father, his sister's name was spelled incorrectly. I know it is a big publication with few people to work on it & it is hard to catch every word, especially a name.

When I was in elementary school, I won the Spelling Bee for our school. The school was a small country school with few students. I went to Jacksboro for the county-wide bee.

The moderator looked like a fairy tale picture of an evil witch. When it came my turn to spell, she stood in front of me, leaned forward & shouted (or so it seemed to me) the word "queer". My heart was pounding, my knees were shaking, & I spelled "u-e-e-r"! I was so humiliated! I knew as soon as I said it I was wrong!

I received the pen pictured above for being a finalist. I don't know why I've kept it all these years. I guess to remind me that even the best of spellers can make mistakes.

Just call me "MS. SPELLED WORD"!