[QUOTE=DaveRaver]
That doesn’t sound very appetizing.
[/QUOTE]
A lot of people feel that way about Coors.
One of the worst consumer product designs ever. If you’re at the beach or out somewhere and you’re consientious, you won’t just through the pull-tab on the ground. But if there’s no convenient trash can, you’ve got this little piece of razor-sharp metal to deal with.
Hard to believe so many millions of those things were manufactured (and apparently still are in the Middle East; learn something every day on the SDMB). It’s not like a church key is that big an inconvenience.
[QUOTE=Baldwin]
But if there’s no convenient trash can, you’ve got this little piece of razor-sharp metal to deal with.
[/QUOTE]
Daddy always made us wear old tennis shoes if we were wading in the shallows of the fishing lakes around home - because of old fish hooks and pop-tops. People would just toss them out of the boat when they opened the cans.
[QUOTE=CapnPitt]
As far as the danger of them, I was terrified as a kid by an episode of Emergency where a guy was choking on a pull tab he dropped in his beer or Coke. Suffice it to say, this kid never dropped a pop top in his Coke any more.
[/QUOTE]
I saw that episode, too! 
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
What I’d like to know is, why did they discontinue the ‘push-button’ ones? (They’re named that way in the linked photos.)
[/QUOTE]
I remember those being a real pain to open, especially if the content had been shaken up a bit and were under additional pressure. You had no leverage; you just had to bruise your thumb mashing down on the damn things.
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Did you 'Merikans have the smaller steel pop cans? I think they were 341 mL or even 281 mL as opposed to 355 mL. Some time in the early nineties they were replaced by the 355-mL (12 US fluid ounces?) aluminim cans in Southern Ontario. I remember admiring how the aluminim can stepped outwards in diameter from the same size top and gave us more Pepsi!
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, steel cans - that was back when crushing a can was a test of strength. But I remember them as 12 oz, same as the new aluminum cans they replaced. You still got them fairly late in the Pittsburgh area, logically enough.
When did they phase out the winding keys on sardine and anchovy tins? It still turns up as a metaphor, but sardines and anchovies I’ve seen for the last several years have pull tabs. They’re still inconveniently packaged, though. Someone needs to rethink packaging of small fish.
I remember the pop tops starting to be replaced in the late 70’s, but it seems to me it didn’t happen universally. There were some companies that switched over and other companies that didn’t. My recollection is that beer cans kept the pop tops for quite a while, but I may be misremembering.
I have a pretty clear memory of there being something of a debate about whether or not to drop the tops into the can. Lots of people did it it. I always did it. But there were always some Cassandras prophesying a bloody, choking death. From what I remember, the danger had something of the character of an urban myth – more theoretical than observed, though you might hear legendary tales about “this guy I knew.” I think the chances of choking were pretty slim. They didn’t come out very easily, and even if did (something which never I never experienced or observed), you would become aware of it rather quickly.
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
What I’d like to know is, why did they discontinue the ‘push-button’ ones? (They’re named that way in the linked photos.)
[/QUOTE]
I remember those! I reckon the current design is superior because of the lever action in opening. This makes it easier to open but also means you don’t have to touch the part of the can you will shortly be drinking from with your ‘quite possibly not entirely sanitary’ fingers. Also, your fingers aren’t being pressed into proximity with the sharp(ish) edge of the can opening.
Am I the only one who remembers the pop-top “frisbee?” Certain types of pop tops had a ring with a pair of slots. You’d separate the ring from the tab and fit the end of the tab into one of the slots, bend it back and let it go. If you got it just right, those rings could really fly far. I miss those; haven’t been able to do that trick since the late '70s.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
Am I the only one who remembers the pop-top "frisbee?
[/QUOTE]
I thought about mentioning that.
[QUOTE=Colibri]
Because of the very short time frame pull-tabs were popular, they will likely be very valuable to future archaeologists in dating strata. I recall hearing of someone using them to data a particular layer of sediment in an environmental study.
[/QUOTE]
Yes. Last summer, my husband’s Cub Scout pack visted Kathio State Park in MN, which contains several archaeological sites. We spoke with an archaeologist, and he explained just how he was able to date a layer of soil because of an old pop-top style Mountain Dew can found in it. In fact, he was able to get even more accurate because of the style of pop-top involved–he was able to call the local Pepsi bottler and look things up on the Internet and find out exactly when that style of can was used.
The push-button cans did not last because they suck and they are hard to open. I visited Alberta, Canada in 1985 when I was 9 years old. In Montana, the “stay-tab” had completely replaced the pull-tab, at least for soda (I only ever remember seeing pull-tabs for beer, so I’m not so sure exactly when they completely disappeared.) In Canada, we found that they were using these push-button cans. I was finally able to open my own pop cans at home, but in Canada, I was back to having to ask Mom and Dad for help, which was quite frustrating. Even they had trouble opening them. The “stay-tabs” are far superior.
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
Related question: When did cans requiring a church key disappear? We had pop-tops when I was a kid, and I don’t think I ever saw a soda or beer can that required a church key. (Quart cans of juice needed them, and still do. But I’m talking about single-serve beverages.)
[/QUOTE]
Anyone who lived in Western Pennsylvania in the early 60’s remembers this. Iron City Beer was the first beverage to come in a pull-top can in 1962, produced in conjunction with Alcoa.
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Did you 'Merikans have the smaller steel pop cans? I think they were 341 mL or even 281 mL as opposed to 355 mL. Some time in the early nineties they were replaced by the 355-mL (12 US fluid ounces?) aluminim cans in Southern Ontario. I remember admiring how the aluminim can stepped outwards in diameter from the same size top and gave us more Pepsi!
[/QUOTE]
I remember going on school trips to Montreal (this would have been in the late '80s) and being amazed by how tiny the soda cans seemed. So while I think we had steel cans, they were the same 12oz. size.
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
I saw that episode, too!
[/QUOTE]
Me Three! I came here to specifically mention that episode. I should have known someone would beat me to it.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
Am I the only one who remembers the pop-top “frisbee?”
[/QUOTE]
I do. Hours of fun for us poor kids.
[QUOTE=Desert Nomad]
DrDeth: Yup - the pull tabs are still used all over the Gulf. I have not seen a Stay-tab in the Mid East yet.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, saw one just today. It never occurred to me they were discontinued in the Real World.
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
Yep, saw one just today. It never occurred to me they were discontinued in the Real World.
[/QUOTE]
It’s most certainly a matter of the producers in the U.S. selling their used machinery to a producer in another country that is looking for a bargain.
I remember going to one of my dad’s softball games back in '84 and spending the whole game under the bleachers finding pull tabs and making a belt out of them.
Anyone else remember those small Donald Duck brand cans of orange juice? They had a sticky strip that you pulled off the opening. I guess those wouldn’t have worked for carbonated beverages?
[QUOTE=Susie Derkins]
Anyone else remember those small Donald Duck brand cans of orange juice? They had a sticky strip that you pulled off the opening. I guess those wouldn’t have worked for carbonated beverages?
[/QUOTE]
No, but I remember small cans of V8 and other non-carbonated beverages having the same type of closure.
Coca-Cola had a promotion in the late 70s/early 80s where there was a prize printed under the bottlecap on the 8 oz. glass bottles and the 2-liter (the 2-liters were still a pretty new thing). The cans also had the prize printed on the inside of the pull tab.
Sometimes, the prize printed on the bottom of the pull tab was printed off center, so out of curiosity, I tore a can in half to see what was under the top of the can. They printed the prize a dozen times around the entire top of the can, probably before they perforated the pull tab. I remember trying to devise a way to punch an additional eleven pull tabs out of the top of the can so I could get more free Cokes. I’d say this couldn’t have been any earlier than 1980 because I would’ve been 7 years old and that was around the time that I figured out how to tear a can in half…and of course, I was way too young to figure out how to stamp out more pull tabs out of a can top.
I remember long before Coca-Cola discontinued the pulltabs, the generic Winn-Dixie “Chek” drinks had stay tabs. When I’d see people open them, they always broke off the stay tab after opening, just because they felt they had to pull something off of the can and throw on the ground or drop in the can. They also didn’t work very well and would often come unattached from the can before punching the opening.
Off-topic, but does anyone remember the early 2-liter bottles in the U.S. that were round on the bottom and they had a plastic cup glued to the bottom so you could stand them up?