Adult Going On Adolescent

I work retail. An extremely rewarding proffesion, as many of you would surely agree. I've been in retail since I was but a year old, my parents having gone in with a joint venture store of Radio Shack origins. So, my formative years were spent Windexing the battery display and doing undercover work on the shoplifting front. No one ever suspects the adorable four-year old of being a narc.

I recall my father being yelled at by a customer, who was quite liberally sprinkling his conversation with words no toddler should be privy to. My father was, and is, an honest guy, give you the shirt off his back sort of fellow. Yet this guy was calling my father a liar, a cheater, a scoundrel... or something akin to these words if you catch my G-rating hints. I remember my dad staying calm, but turning a bright red around the collar, maintaining his proffessionalism until the guy finally left the store. Then he turned and told my mother he was going for a walk, took me by the hand, and proceeded to explain how only people with no class and poor vocabularies would ever speak to another human being in the fashion I had just witnessed.

I have to say, even though I'm now old enough to use such language (and do), that those were some of the wisest words my father ever told me. Right up there with "...wait for the shooter to make a move before committing yourself on a breakway, honey". Though I use curse words, sometimes more than necessary, I try not to actually say them to the person who's angering me. And I certainly don't swear at some poor person who's only trying to do their job. That's not to say I haven't wanted to tell some people exactly where to shove it, but I've resisted that siren's call.

So why the #&$& can't some of my customers do the same? I have people come in, much older than I, who seem to have made it past the 8th grade with relative ease, who fall back upon such terrible language that my ears want to shrivel up and fall off my head. Come on, people, grow up!

...A lady comes in with her young child and promptly gets pissed that we haven't had the foresight to bring in boots that would match her son's ensemble. The "F" word gets used loudly and directly in front of said munchkin.

...Another lady comes in and is upset that we no longer have our BOGO promotion running. Somehow this is my fault because I'm a stupid female-dog.

And my favorite:

"I gave you my resume, why the *bleep* haven't you called me for the position?"

What is wrong with the world today that this is all rather unsurprising, almost acceptable? When did society start to veer away from common decency? When did we tack away from tactful conversation?

I don't know the answer but I do know there is many a person I'd like to take the hand of, walk out to the back alley with, and teach them a thing or two about proper word usage.