What's A Name?

    After four years of marriage my wife informed me that she was pregnant. As with many men, I felt proud and a little concerned. Was I ready to be a father? Would I make a good father? Heck! After 17 years I'm still asking myself the same questions... As the days, weeks, and months passed and the time to the blessed event approached my wife Louise and I did our best to prepare. Neither of us wanted to know the sex of our baby before the birth so it made it a little difficult to make all the arrangements necessary for a child. You know, pink or blue?

     Being a modern (trying not to snicker) man, I chose to be with my wife at the birth so we attended Lamaze classes to prepare for the day. Finally the day arrived, Louise started into labor early in the morning and we went to the doctor's office a couple of hours later. Well, it was a little soon, not dilated enough, so he sent us away and we went to the mall nearby and walked around hoping this would help speed the process. A few hours later we returned to the doctor's office and he determined it was time to go to the hospital.

     Louise had a difficult labor and after 20 hours the doctor advised that the baby was in distress and he would have to perform a cesarean section. I was dressed up in a hospital gown and joined her in the operating room. It was hard to watch as the love of my life underwent the procedure but soon the child was born. A BOY!!! I HAD A BOY!!! I really did want a boy as my first born child but of course a girl would not have been a disappointment either.

     Well, now that we knew our child was a boy we had to decide upon a name. Lou have several suggestions but I was determined that my son would proudly bare a good southern name since we did live in Arkansas. I really didn't care much for Billy Bob or Bubba but I did kind like Buddy as a name. My wife protested saying that Buddy wasn't a name but I held my ground. She calmed down a little when I told her that we'd call him Bud. The real problem arose when I told her what I wanted his middle name to be. Having a first name of Buddy, Bud for short, and our last name being Beers, I felt it only natural that his middle name be Weiser. Surely this would be a name that would be powerful and assure my son a head start toward success, as he grew older.

     Louise really didn't care too much for the name but I held my ground, after all I am the man in the family. The day arrived when the birth certificate was to be filled out and we where asked to choose a name. I proudly gave the name and you'd have thought I had committed the most heinous offense. I had never seen my wife in such an angry state. I was escorted from the hospital by security and advised not to return. She named our first born Timothy Scott Beers, not a good southern name but it was OK. Although this caused a real strain on our marriage we were able to move on and eventually I came to realize that perhaps she was right in not choosing to name our son Buddy "Bud" Weiser Beers.

     Four years later Louise was pregnant with our second child and she threatened to divorce me if I even thought of naming the child, should it be a boy, what I wanted to name our first born. I assured her that I wouldn't, besides we both were hoping for a girl. This pregnancy went very well, as did the first and deciding to be better prepared we began thinking of names. We settled on a name for a boy but were having a problem with a girl's name. I settled the argument and decided that if we had a girl her name was to be Mickie Lobe Beers.

     Looking back, I am really grateful my second child's name is Kevin Ray Beers

Randall J. Beers

© September 29, 2000