I've recently started working for Vans Shoes, which is a staple in Southern California. Everyone from cholos to bourgie white kids know about these shoes. It's preferred that we listen to KROQ music, or classic rock, as it's a reflection of the shoes. On any given day, you can walk into my store and hear the things like Social Distortion, Madness, Johnny Cash, The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Save Ferris, Bob Marley, and at one point, Avenged Sevenfold. The stockroom manager, Mark (his name has been changed to protect his ignorance) believes he knows punk rock, and what KROQ used to play. During the tent sale for Labor Day, I was kickin' it under the tent, listening to my iPod play "Missionary Man" by The Eurhythmics. Mark comes out and says "You're driving away the customers with this angry music." I'm floored, shocked and appalled.

"This is KROQ music," I replied.
"No it's not."
I think, "Am I talking to an idiot? Or has he only been listening to KROQ for the past 8 years?"
"Dude, they played this when it came out and during Flashback Lunch."

Yesterday, Mark cringed when he came back from lunch and the store manager, Pablo, and I were listening to "Sowing the Seeds of Love" by Tears for Fears off the iPod. Mark wants to change the song so badly and I tell him he can, once it's over. He doesn't hear that part, and proceeds to play "Scooby Snacks" by Fun Lovin' Criminals and tells us it's his new theme, to which I replied "This song is about robbing banks while tweakin'," which I don't think he got.
The day before, Pablo and I had some family come in to buy shoes for a girl. She didn't want any white shoes. I would've pegged her as a chola to be, transplanted from Echo Park and ready to call La Sad Girl, Mousie, or Whisper, about the new kicks she going to get. As her family was leaving, she saw the crib shoes we sell and said "When I get a baby brother, I'm gonna buy him nothing but Vans, because he's going to be punk rock, like is big sister, me." Too band her Nirvana t-shirt said other wise.