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I'm really into the Beatles - like, CD collector, date memorising, "what do you MEAN you haven't heard Rocky Raccoon?!?" into the Beatles... - yet, for such a massive band, it's hard to find fellow fans. Not to the same extent as me, at least. 

There's this bookstore I frequent with close to no visitors, run by an old man with enough Beatles paraphernalia to parallel even the most devoted Beatlemaniacs. First time I went, he stood up and shook my hand (something not too typical for a bookstore), introducing himself as Michael. He's at least seventy, and you have to talk at a quiet shout to be heard by him. 

At first I mostly saw books on trains and Buddhism, not really my thing - until I found his crazy Beatles stash for sale. God knows how much I spent that day. The funny thing about that store, though, is that they don't take Eftpos or debit or whatever. I had no cash so I asked if he had online banking. He nodded, pointed at the number, and gave me my books without even checking if I'd paid.

I doubt that place gets much income anyway, since I don't think I've ever seen another customer in there (besides when I brought Sophie and she talked his ear off about Shakespeare and Beckett). It's sort of tucked away near the train station, and the fact he remembered my name the next time I came in implies there's not too many faces there.

I like that guy, though. Once he pointed at a framed picture on the wall (of the Sgt Pepper's album cover) and told me to take a look. Each Beatle was photoshopped to have Michael's face instead.

Anyway, that's not really the point. I was mostly just thinking about how nice it is to meet random people like that.

I volunteer at this op shop near where I live, which is cool for a few reasons. For one, I get first dibs on tons of cool stuff there, like this creepy pram with a haunted doll in it, or this Quarrymen era John Lennon picture. But I also get to talk to people I never even knew were in my neighbourhood, and become friends with some of them over time.

One guy would always come in and talk to me about video games, and now I've got him added on Steam. Another lady asks me for advice on which top is cutest whenever she comes in. Another guy always speaks in a very thick, twangy American accent and everything he says kind of sounds like a riddle, which is always fun.

The funniest people only come in once or twice, though. Like a guy who asked for a price check on his living bearded dragon as a prank, then asked us to babysit it while he shopped. The donations can be interesting too, like someone who donated a half full diary... suffice to say we snooped.
And the best part has got to be the other volunteers, too. It's pretty much me, one other teenager and two old ladies, so somehow I am both the muscle and the tech genius of the equation - not something I'm used to. It's damn fun though, since all I have to do is change a battery or take out the old receipt roll before putting in the new to be hailed with applause by the old ladies. They're also ridiculously flattering in their compliments, and always recommending some new book or ballet or something (author Han Kang is next on the list, I think).

Anyway, that's enough blabbing for today. I just thought of one last story, though, which kind of relates to everything I've said so far.

Once this lady came in with about a thousand things to donate, talking a mile a minute as I stumbled to keep up. At one point she pauses and says, "They call me a boomer. Do you know what that is?" 

I nod, then she asks what generation I am. "Gen Z? God, how old are you?"

I say I'm sixteen and she pauses, looks at me one last time, then suddenly starts to sing: 

"Well she was just, sixteen... you knowww what I mean!!"