“I wasn’t in a bee, but I was put in small groups with the good spellers and had to pick out challenging words. I remember ‘mayor’ and ‘crystal’ were quite the doozies, back in second grade.”

— Sarah Atkinson, student/cashier, Lawrence

“In sixth grade, I mixed up the ‘e’ and ‘l’ in ‘label’ and felt like an idiot.”

— Nina Keizer, student, Lawrence

“It was just in class, but I remember I had to spell ‘banana’ and ‘couch.’”

— Cody Kitzke, teacher, Wichita

“I remember I had to spell ‘invalid,’ which is kind of hard.”

— Sally Pribe, teacher, Wichita

“I don’t remember, but I was always a bad speller.”

— Jason Wright, sales, Lawrence