Long dormant habits
I recently discovered two cans of Coke Cola that I brought back from China in 1993. I drank one the other day and did something I have not done for more than 25 years. Any guesses ?
I opened the can using the pull top and promptly slid the pull top tab and ring into the soda.
If you only know of beverage cans with the safety tab – where the tab is lifted up to open the can and then pushed back down into place (never detaching unless you break it off) – then this whole post will mean nothing to you. For those of us old enough or living in countries where government left well enough along, you know about the full fledged pull tab.
Don’t think this behavior too strange. I did an Internet search and found a blog entry noting that India still has the pull top cans and it goes on to say …
Pull-tabs. They still have these on the soda cans in India. Seen ‘em on the fake Red Bulls, Coke, and Sprite…For you youngsters, the reason they are discontinued is because the standard operating procedure was to pull off the tab and stick it inside the can.
Source: Drive Around the World
Did you drop the pull tab and ring back into the can ? Be honest now !
My recollection is that pull tabs were discontinued because they hurt when stepped on at the beach. And marine life would swallow them. So they were discontinued because fish, birds, and animals didn’t need to eat foods from the aluminum group.
I always heard that dropping the tab into the can saved wildlife – or at least the soles of unsuspecting feet.
On the other hand, when I was in Brazil I saw handbags and other stuff made of bent pull tabs locked together.
Wow – it’s good for the environment ! … and all this time, I thought it was just another bad habit.