Spelling Bee in a small town.

Dwain was asked to be a judge at the Newton County Spelling Bee in Jasper today (Thursday, January 14, 2016). Held in the Carroll Electric Cooperative Building, what an honor.
The meeting room was filled with students from Deer, Jasper, Mt. Judea and Western Grove schools, and their teachers and family members -- supporters all.
The room was buzzing with red-cheeked and chatty children. They were excited.

This pictures shows Kim Mefford (Jasper schools) as the "wrangler" (left, standing), herding the 30 kindergarten - 4th graders who qualified for the county-wide spelling bee. That's Dwain in the inset. Thanks for the photo, Megan. She was sitting in the back of the room. She had never been to a spelling bee.

Donna Braymer (front and center) is laying down the rules. We learned, sanctioned spelling bees follow very specific rules with set words to spell. We see lots of grandparents. These are the same rules for state and national spelling bees. Newton County Times editor Jeff Dezort (left) is guarding the trophies for the top 3 finishers in each age division, and first place spellers get dictionaries.

Dwain is a novice at this judging stuff and is studying the words. No, he's not listening to enunciator Donna Braymer, and it doesn't look as if either Yvonne Cone or David Holsted are listening. Is anyone listening? Evidently some were, because Donna said the state winner gets to go to Washington, D.C., for the national competition, and some of the kids lit up.

No, Dwain did not get a trophy. But one year, he did take a picture of himself with a trophy. He was so jealous. Of more interest, is Donny Braymer talking to our friend Kathy Martin. Kathy's granddaughter won a trophy and is leaning against her grandma. Some of these children were impressive spellers, because not all of the words were on the spelling lists. They were surprise words.

And such good sports, they were.

As the applause ended, they immediately went into cleanup mode. We don't know who told them, but every child in the building started picking up chairs and stacking them.

In 5 minutes, the room was clean. Such teamwork. No wonder Newton County has such good teams. They cooperate and all of the tables and chairs were picked up, stacked and neatly put away.

Tennessee women's basketball coach emeritus Pat Summitt might call this the triangle offense of teamwork.

We left the building first, and Jeff Dezort asked us to save 6 seats at the Blue Mountain Bakery and Café on the square in Jasper.

This isn't us, but this oblong able is where we sat. We arrived first, and sat with our backs to the wall, selfishly, so we would have the best view. We don't know who those people are, but it looks like they are having a good time.

Come hungry, they have huge sandwiches. We had smoked turkey and Swiss cheese, plus a side of pasta salad. We both shared that, plus a small green dinner salad. And look at all those pastries. Yum. We want to go back for breakfast. Omelets with biscuits and gravy? Yes. Or a cinnamon roll.

We were tempted to take some of these items home. They just looked so tasty. Uh-huh.

The woodstove in the Blue Mountain Bakery and Café was still burning today, although the Christmas tree was gone. We could smell fresh creosote as we walked down the sidewalk beside the building.

We think the state spelling bee would be interesting to watch in person.
The parents and teachers at the Newton County Spelling Bee were as good of sports as the children.
We're not sure you'll see people this well behaved in bigger cities and counties. Sometimes competition turns into a status symbol for the parents, status which they garner through their children.
But that's not the way it felt in Jasper. We saw lots of parents, when their child was told they had misspelled a word, reach out and give them a hug.
Only one little girl cried, quietly. She despaired because she wanted to go to Washington.
Megan and Dwain.