Quintessentially Winchester
Maria Zhang
BookEnds is a locally owned and operated small corner bookstore right at the entrance of downtown Winchester.
“Good morning! Let me know if I can help you find anything!”
When I began to work, I discovered that BookEnds had a very interesting employee dynamic—about sixty percent grandmas to forty percent students and recent grads. In other words, it was the teenagers versus the old ladies.
“We’re missing a copy of The Four Agreements? Did you check 505? Someone might have put it in the spiritual display”
We had a weird identification system for the bookshelves. In the adult section, 100 was fiction, 250 was mystery & true crime, and 300 was history & current events. All the children’s shelves started with 800. Even after months of working full time I still needed the laminated cheat sheet we keep at the front counter, and I know I’m not the only one.
“Are these the new books from Hachette? I’ll receive them after I finish the shelving!”
I usually worked with the grandmas on the weekdays and people my age on the weekends, because old ladies didn’t like working weekends. It was a vastly different experience depending on the workday, but both were equally entertaining. Conversations on weekdays were healing to the spirit, peppered with pictures of grandkids and repeated compliments on your dress.
“You’re looking for a birthday gift? Have you seen our New York Times Bestsellers shelf? We update it every week.”
One Thursday night it was particularly slow, and four of these grandmas started talking to each other about their weddings. It was glorious to watch, the four of them sitting in a semi-circle behind the front desk, myself perched slightly behind on our back counter. Everyone took turns, sharing where their wedding was held, who planned it, and so on. Peggy, one of the sweetest ones, said she let her aunt plan everything and even went on a vacation two weeks prior. I remember feeling somewhat out of place that night, but in a good way, like I was anticipating the day that I would be the one sitting in the semi-circle with a teenager quietly observing in the back.
“Yes, Marilyn, I tidied up the children’s room and I’ll do another shelf check now!”
Weekends were when day turned to night. Working with the same generation tossed aside the need for any courtesy or politesse. We relished the bluntness, clustering together to gossip about a customer seconds after they stepped out the door. There was the camaraderie of being the younger ones, pushing off doing shelf checks because we all hated doing them, or covering for each other at the register while the other snuck out to buy milkshakes. But we made up for the chaos with our energy, and I like to think that being around all of us made the owner, who just turned eighty-three, feel much younger.
“Alright,it’s six o’clock, I’ll lock the doors if you send the cash sheets back!”
Maria Zhang, SAS ‘23, is an English major and Creative Writing minor from Winchester, Massachusetts. Seeing her constantly carry a book around was what got her her first job at the local bookstore, and books have never left her hands since.
Maria wrote this piece in a course taught by Paul Blaney. Blaney selected the work for inclusion in WHR.