madeleine
noun
1. a small shell-shaped cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in a mold
2. something that triggers memories or nostalgia
It's interesting what can trigger a memory.
On Friday, I got a phone call at my office from the extremely foxy ghost_light. She was working at the local spelling bee, and one of the kids who I worked with in my youth theater days was a contestant. He went out in the third round, a disappointing finish for him, but much better than I could ever consider doing.
However, it brought to mind my experience that I had back in seventh grade.
I was, and really still am, an nerd. But instead of spelling, my thing was geography. Growing up in a small city in the southeastern part of the state of Missouri, I was always interested in other places, anything that was more exciting than Sunday School, mowing lawn, and the people around me. So I would read books about any and every place.
Around this time, the National Geographic Society initiated the National Geographic Society Geography Bee, kind of a spelling bee about geography, was inaugurated, and my school decided to have the contest. I, of course, won handily, and I took a written test to see if I could go on to the state competition in Columbia, where the University of Missouri is located.
On the day of the competition, the 100 kids who finished at the top on the test signed in and were divided into five groups of twenty. Quite honestly, I figured I didn't have a chance. Only the kids with the top two scores would make it to the finals. But really, I didn't mind, because the highlight of the trip was getting to spend time with my older sister, who was a student at Mizzou. In fact, due to some work-related thing, my mother wasn't able to come, so I took the bus from Cape to Columbia by myself.
But after about nine rounds of the first round, I was doing extremely well, and had a chance to go to the finals--I had missed only one question along with a bunch of other kids. The came the hardest round--where a bunch of kids who had a chance dropped questions. Only one kid had had answered his question correctly. So, if I answered my question correctly, I would make the finals, if I missed it, there would be a sudden death round with the other five kids who had missed two questions.
So here's the question I was given:
In which of the original 13 colonies were the first log cabins, built by Swedish immigrants, built?
Yep. I had no clue. Actually, I don't think anybody in the room had a clue about the correct answer.
I chugged through the recessed of my mind, and after about a minute, and a warning from the moderator about time, I remembered something about Swedes living in the Diamond State, so I said "Delaware", figuring it was wrong.
Then the moderator said that "Delaware" was the right answer.
My jaw dropped. There was applause from the audience. My sister just shrugged her shoulders and gave me a look that pretty much said, "Of course you knew it, you freak."
Answering that question correctly assured my place in the finals.
And I did make a stir with the audience before the finals started. We were forced to introduce ourselves and our families.
I was eighth in the group of ten, and kids got up and introduced themselves. I can remember two things about those previous seven kids. All of kids were from rich suburbs of Kansas City and St. Louis, and they had tons of people with them--parents, teachers. One kid had an entire row of the auditorium filled with their cheering section.
Then it was my turn. And pleased as punch, here's what I said.
"I'm geolinguist and I'm a seventh grader from Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau. I'm here with the greatest person in the world, my big sister."
The reaction of the crowd was interesting. There was a beat of silence, then huge applause. I'm sure they weren't expecting a kid to make it to the final round from a "hick" part of the state, with the only a nineteen year-old-girl being the only person supporting him. I do remember my sister standing up with her face as red as a beet.
I didn't win, of course. I came in fifth in the final round.
But you know, it didn't really matter. My sister took me out to my favorite restaurant in Columbia to celebrate and then we hung out for the rest of the weekend.
And it's become one of the good memories from that part of my life.
1. a small shell-shaped cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter and baked in a mold
2. something that triggers memories or nostalgia
It's interesting what can trigger a memory.
On Friday, I got a phone call at my office from the extremely foxy ghost_light. She was working at the local spelling bee, and one of the kids who I worked with in my youth theater days was a contestant. He went out in the third round, a disappointing finish for him, but much better than I could ever consider doing.
However, it brought to mind my experience that I had back in seventh grade.
I was, and really still am, an nerd. But instead of spelling, my thing was geography. Growing up in a small city in the southeastern part of the state of Missouri, I was always interested in other places, anything that was more exciting than Sunday School, mowing lawn, and the people around me. So I would read books about any and every place.
Around this time, the National Geographic Society initiated the National Geographic Society Geography Bee, kind of a spelling bee about geography, was inaugurated, and my school decided to have the contest. I, of course, won handily, and I took a written test to see if I could go on to the state competition in Columbia, where the University of Missouri is located.
On the day of the competition, the 100 kids who finished at the top on the test signed in and were divided into five groups of twenty. Quite honestly, I figured I didn't have a chance. Only the kids with the top two scores would make it to the finals. But really, I didn't mind, because the highlight of the trip was getting to spend time with my older sister, who was a student at Mizzou. In fact, due to some work-related thing, my mother wasn't able to come, so I took the bus from Cape to Columbia by myself.
But after about nine rounds of the first round, I was doing extremely well, and had a chance to go to the finals--I had missed only one question along with a bunch of other kids. The came the hardest round--where a bunch of kids who had a chance dropped questions. Only one kid had had answered his question correctly. So, if I answered my question correctly, I would make the finals, if I missed it, there would be a sudden death round with the other five kids who had missed two questions.
So here's the question I was given:
In which of the original 13 colonies were the first log cabins, built by Swedish immigrants, built?
Yep. I had no clue. Actually, I don't think anybody in the room had a clue about the correct answer.
I chugged through the recessed of my mind, and after about a minute, and a warning from the moderator about time, I remembered something about Swedes living in the Diamond State, so I said "Delaware", figuring it was wrong.
Then the moderator said that "Delaware" was the right answer.
My jaw dropped. There was applause from the audience. My sister just shrugged her shoulders and gave me a look that pretty much said, "Of course you knew it, you freak."
Answering that question correctly assured my place in the finals.
And I did make a stir with the audience before the finals started. We were forced to introduce ourselves and our families.
I was eighth in the group of ten, and kids got up and introduced themselves. I can remember two things about those previous seven kids. All of kids were from rich suburbs of Kansas City and St. Louis, and they had tons of people with them--parents, teachers. One kid had an entire row of the auditorium filled with their cheering section.
Then it was my turn. And pleased as punch, here's what I said.
"I'm geolinguist and I'm a seventh grader from Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau. I'm here with the greatest person in the world, my big sister."
The reaction of the crowd was interesting. There was a beat of silence, then huge applause. I'm sure they weren't expecting a kid to make it to the final round from a "hick" part of the state, with the only a nineteen year-old-girl being the only person supporting him. I do remember my sister standing up with her face as red as a beet.
I didn't win, of course. I came in fifth in the final round.
But you know, it didn't really matter. My sister took me out to my favorite restaurant in Columbia to celebrate and then we hung out for the rest of the weekend.
And it's become one of the good memories from that part of my life.