I think I've mentioned it before, but one of my best friends and his wife have a vintage store where they sell comic books, toys, or any memorabilia from 70s - 90s. Sometimes they work small local conventions and ask me to help which is a great way to make a few bucks for the day and chat with fans because I have been turned off by a lot of the major cons.

The best thing about working these conventions is getting to know the different vendors and I usually go around and buy comics for myself before everything starts and towards the end when it gets slow. Anyway, I stopped by this one booth where a guy was selling old sci-fi/fantasy books and looked to be in his early to mid 80s. He was reading one of Heinlein's books and I told him that was one of my favorite authors and he really perked up and we talked sci-fi for about an hour. He used to run a book store and once his wife passed away he did the small conventions for fun and as a way to get out of the house.

Before leaving he gave me some Heinlein books for free as well as a big stack of 50s pulp books (bad shape but still readable) for free and said us Heinlein fans need to stick together. I love talking to actual sci-fi fans or any real fan of the hobbies/IP's that have been destroyed and demonized. Modern sci-fi companies would see him as an evil old white male while giving another hugo or nebula to a worthless hack like Jemison or whatever author has the correct talking points.

It used to be on my bucket list to attend at least one San Diego con but some old timers told me they stopped caring about nerds or comic book fans a very long time ago. An old friend of mine recently sent me some pictures from cons we went to like 15 years ago and there were some pictures of me with booth babes (which I think have been banned). But back then the panels were actually for the fans and not some BS diversity lecture.