UGLY AMERICANS, or IF I DON'T POST THIS, THE TOURISTS HAVE WON

Working retail in an area populated with tourists is one of the levels of hell. I don't know from religion, so ask a priest or something. I'm pretty sure you'll they'll be able to tell you exactly which level, and how many puppies you have to kick to get there. Many people leave their brains and manners at home when they go on vacation, and I was a professional puppy kicker in a past life. There's many tales to tell.
In 2 sales jobs (both selling jewelry) over 7 years, here are a couple of highlights :
A family of 3, Dad is clearly in the military, hair cut to steel toe boots, or possibly just naturally violent with bad fashion sense. The daughter was a cute little girl about age 2 or so, Mom, a woman with a nervous facial tick and a hushed voice, and a humongus dog clearly chosen by Dad because it looked ferocious and slobbery, it could have eaten me for breakfast and had the little girl for dessert.
As Mom walks up to the counter to look at some jewelry , it quickly becomes clear Dad doesn't get how to behave outside of boot camp. After a couple of minutes of having to be quiet he starts kick boxing with the dog, or more accurately, AT the dog, missing his face by an inch or so each time. (Hmmm, he's got my old job!) Being appropriately appalled at this, even though the dog was suprisingly calm, really he just looked bored with the man, we asked him to stop. He did. He started kicking at the little girl, missing her face by about an inch each time. Mom twitched and ignored everything except to to look at me and shrug in a "What can I do? He wanted a boy." kind of way.
Suprisingly, the little girl reacted much the same way the dog did, like he did this routinely to both of them and she was bored with it.
He was asked to stop this and they all left the store. I hope the dog ate him.

One of the stores I worked for was on the waterfront with a lovely view of the benches and garbage cans outside. Parents frequently could be seen giving their little ones popcorn or pieces of food to feed seagulls that swarmed everywhere. One day a co-worker and I watched as a little boy threw his napkin into the water instead of food, he toddled back to his father, who then gave him the wrapper off his cheese burger, which also went into the Sound. Back and forth this went 2 more times, WHEE!!!! IT'S FUN TO THROW GARBAGE! WHEE!!! VACATION IS FUN!!!! I left the shop, stomped towards the man and told him this wasn't his private garbage can and he should know better, and what did he think he was doing anyway!!!
Blink, Blink, no repsonse. I waited. Blink Blink. Nothing. The little one hadn't thrown anything a a couple of minutes, so, thinking I'd saved the environment single handed I marched back into the store to accept the congratulations of my peers. Except they were just shaking their heads at me and pointing at the little boy, who's father was handing him more garbage.
I had customers to work with, and at some point father and son left my little world a scummier place than when they got there.

and the moral of the story is.....when you make your list of things to pack, don't forget your brain, I'll help you, B-R-A-I-N.