Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003161938
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SCOT HOFFMAN CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: SNOWVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"He just hates it because the kids are always studying," said his wife, Verily Simpkins, laughing. "Don't have time for him."
"They study all the time," Harold said of his youngsters.
Sarah, 14, and Benjamin, 10, studied hard enough this year to win in their respective schools and wound up in the uneasy position of competing against one another in the county bee.
"I was a nervous wreck," said their mother.
Benji let his nerves get the best of him and went out on "unscarred."
"I just got nervous," he said. "I said something like u-n-s-e-c-r. . . ."
Benji, a fifth-grader at Snowville Elementary, beat four of nine spellers before being eliminated.
"That's pretty good considering he's only 10," Verily said. "He was one of the youngest ones there."
Sarah, an eighth-grader at Dublin Middle School, went on for about 15 rounds, and in the final round her opponent misspelled "utilitarian."
"I spelled that and got . . . `squeamish,'" Sarah said, no pun intended.
"Squeamish, S-Q-U-E-A-M-I-S-H, squeamish," she said, and Pulaski County got a new spelling champ. She and the family will go to Roanoke on April 7 where she'll compete in the regional state final - and where dad will be obligated to indulge Sarah in her favorite pastime: shopping.
Moreover, for reaching the county final, dad also must make good on a two-year promise to deliver one baby lamb to the kids.
"He's been promising it for two years now," Sarah said, only half-jokingly. "He better get it."
Competition or not, no love was lost between the siblings, who sat on the couch together during an interview, Benji looking erudite to belie his 10 years, bubbly Sarah helping Benji finish a sentence and steadying him by reaching over to touch his hand.
"We both did the best we could," Sarah said.
"They really didn't want it to get down to just the two of them," their mother said. "They didn't want to put each other out."
To prepare, Benji and Sarah take different approaches. Both use the study book from which the spelling bee words are chosen: a thin paperbound manual filled cover to cover with a thousand-plus words that don't look like words . . . like staphylococci.
"I really just lay down somewhere and look up the words," Benji said.
Sarah's method is a little more involved. "I go through the book and beat them [the words] out on a manual typewriter several times and study that way," she said.
Sarah's no stranger to the spelling-bee scene. In fact, she's no stranger to winning the spelling bee.
The first year she competed, in the fifth grade, she won the county - the first Snowville Elementary student to do so. Since then, she has competed every year. And this year, her second year in the state competition, she has her sights sets on the nationals.
"This time really means a lot to her because it's her last year of eligibility" in the fifth- through eighth-grade competition, Verily said.
The winner in Roanoke gets a set of encyclopedias, $100 and a free trip to Washington to compete in the nationals. Win the nationals and get a college scholarship.
Benji considers his experience in the county bee more of an accomplishment than a setback and has every intention of competing in his remaining years of eligibility.
"`Course he will," Sarah said.
Sarah and Benji plan to use their smarts for different ends.
"I like arts," Sarah said. She makes cornshuck dolls under her mother's tutelage and sells them at crafts fairs for money to buy her type of clothes. "Maybe I'll be an art teacher."
Benji wants to be a farmer and is all set to inherit the Simpkins' farm adjacent to their home.
"I like fishing, too," he said.
So, are Mom and Dad proud?
U-N-E-Q-U-I-V-O-C-A-L-L-Y.
"They're great kids," Verily said. "Really great kids."
"They're pretty good," Harold understated. "`Long as they keep with this and stay out of things they're not supposed to be in."
by CNB