Studebaker Avanti

I got to thinking about an Internet page I saw a while back. Seems this guy had a life-long yearning for a Studebaker Avanti. Not just any Avanti. He wanted a red convertible, with a tan interior, please, and low mileage would be nice too. Quite a yearning. At most, there were twelve cars on the entire planet that would fulfill his desire. He found one, but it wasn't really available. Finally another fell into his lap. Read the link for the whole deal. (By the way, what can be more gay than his father buying a lavender Packard station wagon?)

I got to thinking of that, and I thought of my repeated complaint that there are absolutely no Studebaker Avantis (certainly no red convertibles) in my neighborhood. OK, I phrased it differently. Nobody to date within at least 100 kilometers, and certainly nobody that would make my heart pound (and, not to be selfish, nobody whose heart I'd speed up either). Well, OK. That's what the philosophers would call a "brute fact." Mansfield plus AIDS plus age have ensured that the population of gay possible dates is close to zero. Twelve at most.

So I asked myself what would my ideal Avanti look like? I got a list.

• Age I just don't want age to be an issue between us. I don't want someone who needs his mother's permission to stay out at night, nor do I want to change someone's Depends. I want someone who can keep up with me, but not call me "geezer."


• Spirituality I'm not too hung up on someone being exactly my denomination, but I certainly don't want a fight. I don't want to get slugged if I say a bad word. Nor do I want to get ridiculed if I claim that the Bible is really reliable.


• Appearance Wouldn't it be nice if I look at him and say "Wow!" Wouldn't it be nice if he had the same reaction? How about a reasonably flat stomach? For both of us? Asian is kind of nice.


• Tastes I like modern art, Greek food, red wine, choral music, and cartoons. Wouldn't it be nice to find someone who also enjoys some of these things? Wouldn't it be nice if I enjoy some of his things too?


• Distance I'm sure there's an ideal someone (an Avanti) in San Francisco, and another in Vancouver. Maybe one in London, England, too. I'd like to drop in for coffee at short notice. I'd like to find my someone within an hour's drive.

So I got to thinking. Praying too. I've been sort of frustrated, praying for ANYONE AT ALL, and nothing in particular has happened. Why not pray for an Avanti? At least then I'd know what I'm looking for. And when a 40ish gay single Christian Asian guy who likes Greek food and red wine happens to move into my apartment building, I'll know what I'm supposed to do.