Back in the 50's

[AZ Jim]

On Friday or Saturday night if you carried a "church key", what was it for?

 

[Aunt Bea]

On Friday or Saturday night if you carried a "church key", what was it for?

 

[hollydolly]

I wouldn't have a clue..I was being fed through a bottle at the time... and not vodka...LOL

 

[Geezerette]

Not that I would know personally, you understand, but it was to open the beer cans.. No pop tops in those days.

 

[AZ Jim]

Not that I would know personally, you understand, ��but it was to open the beer cans.. No pop tops in those days.

LOL My kinda gal...You know you are correct...

 

[toffee]

well I have learnt something today

 

[hollydolly]

Me too, Toffee... :cheers1:

 

[squatting dog]

never had a fancy one, just a plain Jane type. somewhere in the dark pit of my shed, I still have it.

 

[rgp]

never had a fancy one, just a plain Jane type. somewhere in the dark pit of my shed, I still have it.

I still use one, I prefer bottle beer.

 

[Macfan]

I've always known it by that name though my Mom used to refer to it as a can opener. Dad knew better . Don...

 

[Falcon]

I gotta whole drawer full of 'em. They have more than one use.

Used one this morning to clean the overflowed waffle iron.

 

[raybar]

Well, in addition to the can & bottle opener type churchkey, some of us had actual keys to actual churches.

 

[Macfan]

Good heavens, I never made the connection between actual keys and actual churches. I just assumed churches were always open. I should know better than to assume though. Thanks for clearing that up, raybar. Don...

 

[raybar]

Good heavens, I never made the connection between actual keys and actual churches. I just assumed churches were always open. I should know better than to assume though. Thanks for clearing that up, raybar. Don...

The rumor is that the term "church key" goes back to early bottled beer with pry-off caps. Openers looks vaguely like the big keys many churches used at the time.

Our church was open early morning to late evening, but not 24/7. The keys I had occasionally were my grandmother's. She was board member and treasurer. Several times I was sent to get something. "Raymond, your bicycle wants to go to church and get my red checkbook . . . "

 

[Mrs. Robinson]

Funny-at our home in the suburbs (in the 50s) it was called a can opener. But when we were at our cabin here at the lake,it was always called a church key. Maybe because we never had beer at our city home-but there was always beer here at the lake! At some point in the 50s though-or possibly the early 60s-my dad brought up an old fridge and made a "kegerator" out of it,so from then on the beer was always on tap. But we still used the church key to open our Shasta colas.

 

[Tedwalker]

Occasionally the pop top fails to work, so the church key opener can be useful as a backup.