Found this on a beach in the Bahamas

[Dougcole]

Anyone remember these? Google says last date of manufacture was 1980, so it somehow survived for at least 40 years. My guess is that it washed up during Dorian.

 

[Frosty]

I do! The tough and daring kids would remove the pull tab and put it INSIDE the can before drinking the beverage

 

[Caphenning]

I do! The tough and daring kids would remove the pull tab and put it INSIDE the can before drinking the beverage

And if they didn’t, they’d throw them on the ground to be stepped on...

 

[Group9]

And if they didn’t, they’d throw them on the ground to be stepped on...

"Blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top, , cut my heel, had to hurry back home."

So common back then, a slightly popular song was written about that very thing happening.

 

[Dougcole]

I was only 15 in 1980 when this type of can went out of production, but I had a few beers from them nonetheless. My Uncle Jim used to give them to me. He was, and still is, my favorite uncle.

 

[Frosty]

I just had a nostalgia vision of a "hippie belt" made of strung together pop tops

 

[Dougcole]

I just had a nostalgia vision of a "hippie belt" made of strung together pop tops

Oh man, I remember the teenage girl from down the street who used to babysit my brothers and me had one of those. I think her name was Linda. Good times.

 

[tiltrider1]

I’m guessing you guys aren’t old enough to remember opening beer cans with a church key.

 

[FF]

Anyone that wanders with a metal detector will find pop tops abound.

 

[Peter B]

Anyone that wanders with a metal detector will find pop tops abound.

You are right there FF. Here in Oz we still have drinks coming in cans like that. Did they disappear from the US in 1980..? If so, why..? They can be recycled.

 

[Frosty]

I'm not sure of the exact dates, but they were replaced by tabs that open the can but everythihng stays attached. Not as nice for drinking out of, but also no great hardship and now you have to be more determined to litter (you have to throw the entire can not just the separate pop top).

It looks like this. You lift the tab, it pushes the round part down into the can like a flap (it remains attached as the cut only goes around about 80% of the way), and then the tab just settles back and stays sitting there (mildly annoying).

 

[Brisyboy]

You are right there FF. Here in Oz we still have drinks coming in cans like that. Did they disappear from the US in 1980..? If so, why..? They can be recycled.

Hang on a tick Pete - we have the cans, no argument but not the detachable ring pulls - Noah used them on the ark - our cans have had the non separating type for ages.

 

[Northern Spy]

The month of May 1989 I was attending the Indy 500 as a guest of the city as I was on the namesake submarine at the time. We were invited to the home of the Congressman's wife who christened the sub at commissioning. Beautiful big house on tree lined old brick paved street in small town Indiana. Had fantastic fried chicken and potato with an e salad, on gingham covered tables outside with a large galvanized washtub full of iced beer. Idyllic. We were being polite (hung over) young sailors chatting with her about the good late-Congressman and submarine life and the Race and the wonders of Indiana, when she scolded us for not drinking a beer or two. It was some that her "husband or her son had stashed in the basement."

Congressman Bray had passed away ten years previously...

PBR with a pop-top! Yikes! Sure enough, when peering into the can, one could find that there were indeed sinkies at the bottom.

Being polite young sailors we only sipped a little bit and surreptitiously poured the rest in the bushes.

PS: Potato with an e as I watched the race with VP Dan Quayle, another fine Hoosier.

 

[Group9]

I’m guessing you guys aren’t old enough to remember opening beer cans with a church key.

I remember them, but I wasn't old enough to drink beer then.

 

[Peter B]

Hang on a tick Pete - we have the cans, no argument but not the detachable ring pulls - Noah used them on the ark - our cans have had the non separating type for ages.

Haha...shows how much beer I drink then, eh..? :lol:

Yeah, I was thinking of the type Frosty showed in #11.

 

[tiltrider1]

I remember them, but I wasn't old enough to drink beer then.

Legally neither was I, but my grape soda can still need a church key during the early 60’s.

 

[Lou_tribal]

It was still existing in France after 1980 as I this from my childhood, not sure for how long but I guess it was existing there until 90s or so.

L

 

[Crankyank]

Saudi Arabia - today.

 

[Tin Man]

Taking the guys out on my dad's boat back in the day, usually involved each person stringing the church keys together to see who could create the longest chain.