Lair Davis (Our Man in Costa Rica)

Not all adventure occurs when you are young. Retirement also can be an adventure — a little scary perhaps but wonderful, both anxiety-provoking and exciting. I have begun the adventure of making my “gay golden years” glitter. There is not much support out there for gays in their senior years (mature years? prime time? Oh, please! Who are we kidding? Old! I can deal with it, so would everyone please stop trying to come up with a non-offensive word for me! The word “senior” works just fine. Just like a senior in high school, I am a senior in LIFE school.) I am still here! I am retiring! I am celebrating! Every Friday...I’m gonna send Annie a column to share with readers. Enjoy. Please feel free to interact.

January 14, 2005

Visitors

When you live in a place such as Costa Rica, chances are quite good that you will have friends come to visit. In the last month I have had four house guests. Each has brought pleasure to my life in retirement.

For two weeks in December my sister from Texas was here. It was her first adventure out of the United States, and I wanted to make sure she had a good time, so I dragged her all around the country, tromping down trails through rainforests, riding in chair-lifts through the canopy, floating down canals through the jungle.

Lois had to return home to recuperate from her vacation.

Daniel and Anna are a French-Canadian couple in their 20s. They were delightful house guests — and restored my hope in the next generation (or are they members of the generation AFTER the next generation?). They spent New Year’s Eve with me at a party with my neighbors.

And at that party, guess who ended up being the dance partner for every one of the dancing females? Yep, you can always count on “the gay guy” to fill that role. Most nongay men manage to make themselves scarce when the dancing begins.

Robert, my third guest, arrived on New Year’s Day. He is a teacher in Oceanside and was visiting Costa Rica as part of his research into possible places to retire. We had become acquainted via a column similar to this one. On his arrival here in Grecia, we discovered that we share a passion for Christopher Isherwood.

Robert said that he becomes quite put out when he discovers gay individuals who are unaware of Isherwood, the author of “Berlin Stories,” which ended up on stage and screen as “Cabaret.”

I totally agree. Isherwood’s life story is the story of the gay community of the 20th century. In my opinion, a gay person who has not read Isherwood should have his gayness revoked!

More visitors will be coming to visit me this year. I will welcome them because I love playing tour guide in my beautiful new country. If you are heading this way, I’d love to welcome you, too.

Col 1

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Col 2
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Col 3
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Col 9

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