Y'all have changed me in a year.
The people (tourists to the nth degree!) that I come with every year have become progressively worse. 12 years ago I don't remember leaving as much as a chair on the beach overnight. Then they started having babies, and brought the little baby tents, and they would leave things like chairs and volleyball nets over the weekend on the beach. Now they leave big tents, all the chairs, the volleyball nets, those games where you throw the balls on the strings, ocean kayaks...
I'm not at all defending their behavior, but I knew that it would be an exercise in futility to tell my peeps to bring it all in every night. The tourists just don't get it, y'all. (How funny--I said that like I'm
not a tourist!) They're just here for the weekend, and they're either a) peeing on their territory, or b) loving SoWal so well that they feel at home to leave their stuff out their overnight.
Once again--I don't defend the behavior. I take my chair and my stack of books out when I go and back in when I go. But I don't see, practically speaking, how the attitudes of people who are here for 4 days a year are going to be changed.

I almost wish that the powers that be DID have the manpower to pick up the tents, nets, and chairs every night so that the beachgoers would realize that their stuff is not safe out there.