Oh Beth, What Can I Do?

By Scott Coner

Country Artist

         Of the many things we experience in life, there are those moments that occur, sometimes unexpectedly, that stay with us forever. That first kiss, the first time we feel love for someone outside of our own family, or even the first time we drive off in a car all alone. I have spent most of my life seeking out those very moments. I felt some of them early in life and became interested in the feelings they aroused. I’m no scientist, but hearts must trigger something pretty cool in our minds and bodies during those moments.

         When I was in the sixth grade, there was a girl named Beth that I had one of my first real schoolboy crushes on. Beth and I were both safety patrolmen at our school, so I guess you could say we were a pretty big deal. Although, I’m not positive anyone ever actually listened to me as I patrolled the mean sidewalks of our school trying to keep all of those young souls safe.

         Being a school safety patrolman had other hazardous duties as well. Beth and I both were often involved in taking the American flag down at the end of the day and folding it up nicely before taking it back to the front office. I remember as we folded the flag together my fingers touched hers, and I think that was all it took for me to fall in love. Of course, I may be a little over sensitive in such matters because I have always been a hopeless romantic. 

 (My video "You Got Me Right" was inspired by my beautiful wife, Cyndi)

         That year, I remember some of the songs on the radio being kind of cool. We had “Dream Weaver” (by Gary Wright I think…), “I Write the Songs”, (by Barry Manilow, but he didn’t write that one…) some band called Hot Chocolate had a song called “I Believe in Miracles (You Sexy Thing)”, and then there was a ballad by a band called Kiss that contributed a single called “Beth”. Early on, I didn’t really care for the song “Beth”, much because I wasn’t fully convinced that the guy singing the song could sing very well. But as my first love grew across the American flag, the song began to have new meaning.

         Back then, during high school basketball season, all of us kids would go to the high school and act like we belonged there. We had our own little section in the gym bleachers, and we began to learn how to communicate with other sixth graders that we would soon be sharing a school with the following year as we entered middle school. It was at one of those basketball games that Beth kissed me on the lips. I can’t really describe it because I think I may have blacked out for a minute or two. I didn’t know how to act after that. I didn’t know if I should try to hold her hand, be rude to her, or profess my undying love from the mountaintops. What I was aware of though was that time just stopped during that three seconds. I had actually become a man. 

Scott Coner (Photo by Cynnamae Media Productions)

         Well, I don’t guess I blew her mind by any stretch of the imagination, because she began dating some butt-headed kid that lived in her neighborhood who wasn’t actually terrified of girls. I heard the stories at the lunch table, and it killed me a little bit more each day. I didn’t live in town, so I couldn’t visit her. I wouldn’t have known how to visit her if I lived across the street from her anyway, so it didn’t matter much. These new feelings came at me like tiny torpedoes. I would see her in the hall sometimes, and she would walk right by me. She would fold the flag in the afternoons with me and not even attempt to be her normal, sweet self. Sometimes, she and her ugly, stupid-headed boyfriend would walk around the school together, and I couldn’t understand at all what I had done to deserve such treatment. The butt-headed guy was so sure of himself. He laughed with everyone and played basketball pretty well. And he sure had better clothes than me. I mean, I wasn’t wearing “Ger-animals” or anything, but I didn’t have the kind of nice clothes the kids in the wealthy neighborhoods got to wear. The good news was I had a back-up plan. There were some girls in my classroom that were actually nice to me, so they helped me bounce out of the pain. Yep, I had Staci and Margret to fill the cracks in my broken heart.

         Truthfully, the pain may have only lasted for a week or so. I never got a chance to date Staci or Margret. But they sure were nice girls. What I did get to take with me instead was my first kiss. It came quick and unexpected. It burnt me down all the way to the ground, and I really liked that feeling quite a bit. Anyway, that was the first really big moment in my life. It was the one moment that made me realize that women may be the most important gift God ever gave man. Ever since, it’s been songs about long-legged women for me. And that’s just fine.  

         Scott Coner is a country singer-songwriter who has worked in the studio with legendary artists such as Tanya Tucker, T. Graham Brown and Charlie Daniels. You can learn more about him and hear his music at www.Facebook.com/ScottConerMusic, www.YouTube.com/user/ScottConer, and www.ScottConer.com. Follow Scott at www.Twitter.com/ScottConer.