N-E-C-E-S-S-A-R-Y

As I was writing my last post, I couldn’t help but remember one of the few times my mother lost her temper. Mom rarely lost her temper. I don’t believe she ever, truly, lost it at all. The times it appeared she had lost it, were, in fact, moments of righteous anger, similar to when Christ “lost” his temper in the temple.

Such was the time that Mom was grading my weekly spelling test in 6th (I think) grade. Mom had worked out a system, so if I misspelled a word one week, it would appear on my next spelling quiz. Most of the time, I was able to memorize the dozen or so words that I would be tested on, so my Friday spelling quiz was never a big deal to me.

This particular Friday, after I had taken my test, Mom sat down to correct it. I had miss-spelt "necessary," again. I don’t really remember the details, but I believe that this was the fourth or fifth week that I had miss-spelt it. Chances are, I was just not able to come up with a memorization trick, or I kept forgetting what memorization trick I had decided to use.

This was, understandably, very frustrating to mom. I’m sure she got tired of quizzing me on it week after week. Also, my laid back attitude toward my spelling wasn’t helping her peace of mind. She called me over to her desk (by the frustrated undertone, I could tell something wasn’t right, “Cola, how do you spell necessary?”

I proceeded to spell necessary, incorrectly, out loud.

“No, Cola, it’s spelt n-e-c-e-s-s-a-r-y. Spell it again.”

I tried, and again failed to spell it correctly.

Then Mom wrote it down on a piece of paper, “See, this is how you spell it. Look at it! Try it again.”

She took the piece of paper away, so it was, again, miss-spelt.

“Cola, look at me.” Mom said, very frustrated by this point.

I looked at her, although I would really rather have kept looking at the carpet. Who in their right mind wants to look at their mom when she’s mad?

“N (bang) E (bang) C (bang) E (bang) S (bang) S (bang) A (bang) R (bang) Y (bang)!!!!! THAT IS HOW YOU SPELL NECESSARY!!! N (bang) E (bang) C (bang) E (bang) S (bang) S (bang) A (bang) R (bang) Y (bang)!!!!!”

The bangs were Mom’s fists against the desk, as she hammered them both down as the appropriate letter came from her mouth.

To this day, I still can’t spell necessary, unless I bang my fist against my desk. Then it just comes to me. I believe that is why I know that Six (bang) teen (bang) ounces (bang) equals (bang) one (bang) pound (bang).