Want to see the changing face of America?   Look no farther than Hurricane Harbor water park in Jackson, NJ, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in August:

We are the wealthiest country in the world.  Good thing, ‘cuz an outing for a family of four (parking, tickets, locker rental, food, tchochkes) runs well over $300.  We are also the fattest country in the world, with almost one-quarter of the population characterized as obese; one serving of Papa John’s pepperoni pizza contains 9 grams of fat and 227 calories; the wait for a slice was over an hour.

You want diversity?  Gotcha covered!  Sure there’s lots of European-looking folks.  But they are outnumbered by far by folks from China, Japan, Africa, India, Latin America, Russia, the Caribbean and lots of other places.  We enjoyed watching a group of young Israelis standing in line for an hour next to a group speaking Arabic.

We learned that we’re all pretty much the same.  All youngsters, regardless of race, cut in line and pass on the left whenever they can.  All 13-year olds are hell-raisers, which pisses off all mothers equally.  All dads like to annoy their children.  All half-clad women are equally self-conscious.  And a scream of joy sounds the same in any language.

We did spot one cultural difference: only white folks sing along to Jimmy Buffett, but all folks sing along to Bob Marley.

Next stop:  Six Flags Great Adventure, home of the tallest roller coaster in the world.  We’ll be investigating how different cultures deal with the issue of public vomiting.