As a Child, He Too Was Spell Bound

I’ve always had a soft spot for the National Spelling Bee. Once upon a time, I expected to win the thing. Long story. Oh, maybe I’ll tell you about it later.

The Bee ended last week in Washington and I’d hoped to compare notes with Justin Song, the 11-year-old Aliso Viejo sixth-grader who represented Orange County. Donning the dunce cap, however, I didn’t phone him in his posh D.C. hotel until after 10:30 p.m., and the lad was zonked. You’d retire early, too, if you had to spell “Rhadamanthine” in public.

Which Justin did correctly. But he didn’t fare as well in the 25-word written round and failed to advance to Round 3. I asked his mother, Rebecca, which words he missed, but she wasn’t sure. “He was very upset, so we didn’t ask him too much,” she said. He conceded he’d guessed on at least one of them, but without success.

Here were some of the words from that written round: succussatory, nullipara and oeillade.

All I can say is they aren’t making spelling words like they did in 1961. Back then, I also happened to be an 11-year-old sixth-grader with visions of spelling supremacy. Like Justin, I was one of the younger participants -- my event was the Midwest Spelling Bee in Omaha -- and thought I could spell just about anything. Then they threw “nauseous” at me, and I flubbed it. Had they given me “oeillade,” I would have burst into tears.

“I think he had a lot of confidence,” Rebecca Song said, “but he didn’t know how much he should study.”

How much did he study? “I don’t think he studied that hard,” she said.

Sharing a bond, I wanted to know from Justin if he felt he’d let down his family and friends. That’s what I remember most: After surviving numerous rounds before getting bounced, I approached my parents and teacher with a quivering lower lip.

Good God, they’d driven 120 miles from our little town, just to see me win and I’d failed. The shame!

Little did I know that would be good practice for later life. On that day, however, neither my parents nor teacher mocked me. I remember a long, quiet ride back into the country, during which I may have felt nauseous. But because I had two more years of eligibility left and was one of the few sixth-graders at the Midwest Bee (the steppingstone to the national contest), we knew the spelling world hadn’t heard the last from me.

As it may be for Justin: More than 85% of the spellers this year were 12 or older.

Does he want to come back? Yes, his mom said. But at this stage of his career, she said, he was almost happy he didn’t make it to the TV rounds.

“I don’t think he enjoys it,” she said of the media exposure.

Justin doesn’t know how lucky he is. Think of poor Akshay Buddiga, the 13-year-old who fainted at the 2004 Bee after hearing the word “alopecoid.” He hit the deck, a televised moment that now has attained Google immortality.

But in one of the great comebacks in sporting history, Akshay prevailed. After listing to his left, eyes bugging out, then toppling over, Akshay got up, adjusted his glasses, walked to the microphone and correctly spelled the word. He went on to earn second place.

As someone who both spelled and fainted as a kid, I could relate. His swoon was shown repeatedly last week as part of the Bee’s TV promotion. Wherever he is, I hope he enjoyed it.

Enough about him. How did my spelling career end? I thought you’d never ask. Well, we moved from the country into Omaha after I finished sixth grade, only to learn the next spring that Omaha seventh- and eighth-graders were barred from the county contests that fed into the Midwest Bee. I was finished at 12.

Would I eventually have won the Midwest Bee and gone on to the National Spelling Bee?

What do you think?

Of course, I would.

Am I still bitter over being denied the chance to etch my name into American spelling annals?

Not in the least.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com.