I have question for you older DUers

[GP6971]

For the life of me, I can't remember. We did some serious housecleaning today of some kitchen cabinets and drawers and came across a number of can openers which I referred to as "church keys". Triangle on one end to open cans and the other end a bottle opener. Where did that term originate?
GP

[Junkdrawer]

1. Needed for old beer cans.

Without them, you got religion.

[GP6971]

4. I know

Always had one at hand when I was in college in the late 60s!!!!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. From Wikipedia:

There is sparse, and often contradictory, documentation as to the origin of the term "church key". The phrase is likely a sarcastic euphemism, as the opener was obviously not designed to access churches. One explanation is in Medieval Europe, most brewers were monks. Lagering cellars in the monasteries were locked, to protect aging beers and the monks carried keys to these lagering cellars. It may have been those keys, which remotely resembled the early church key openers, that gave the "church key" opener its name. Another motive for assigning the device such an ironic name could have been the fact beer was first canned (for test marketing) in 1933—the same year Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Bill. This act, which predated Repeal of Prohibition, amended the Volstead Act, making 3.2% low-alcohol beer legal. Some experts have posited the term "churchkey" was a way to "stick it to" the religious organizations who had effected Prohibition in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_opener

[GP6971]

9. Many thanks!

Didn't think to look at Wiki

GP

[Duer 157099]

3. I always thought it was cuz if you drank enough beers

you'd eventually see god.

[GP6971]

8. Saw him/her many times......

Not so much when I woke up though

[Voice for Peace]

17. when booze helps a person quit worrying

and for a while they love everybody they see, and tell them so; and they want to do good; there's a beautiful radiance coming out of that drunkard's heart, and if that's not God, I don't know what is.

It's only a temporary glimpse and often has deadly consequences to the body & brain. But if only that body could understand: it's not the booze, it's the love they want, the very love inside their own hearts. It's color and joy they are looking for, a three-dimensional life, and tears, release; not really the booze.

[SomethingFishy]

5. I always saw Church Keys used with cans of Spam...

I assumed they were called Church Keys because you needed to pray before you ate that crap.

[GP6971]

10. Live in the PNW

And actually have a couple of cans in the emergency earthquake kit.. Would I ever eat it??? Don't know.

[Scootaloo]

16. Spam's not that bad, actually

As far as canned meatlike substances go.

[rurallib]

6. always took it to be sarcasm just like calling the place you visit after enough Schlitz

the 'Throne"
Got drunk on Schlitz once - left memories for a lifetime.

[Historic NY]

7. They still come in handy...

I used them when opening chicken & beef broth cans...they also can be used to rank out old tiles grout.

[brewens]

11. This is the proper church key I believe. Third row down, 3rd from left.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=church+key+bottle+opener&fr=slv8-msgr&fr2=piv-web&tab=organic&ri=17

It has that large key shape. Also a joke as beer drinking was unchurchlike behavior. One of those and a stainless steel slip ring has been my key chain for 35 years.

[Poiuyt]

12. The name was originally because bottle openers looked like keys to old churches

http://www.just-for-openers.org/Church-Key.html

I have a really nice one but I can't take a picture of it right now because my cat is sitting on my lap.

[Poiuyt]

13. The kind I have looks like this one:

[pscot]

14. Comes from spending Sunday mornings down at the dump

with the boys, drinking beer and shooting rats when we shoulda been in church. These are church keys.

You need the pointy end to open a steel can with no pull tab.

[GP6971]

15. Did you do that in NJ?

That's what we did as kids.. Our dads would take us to the Secacus "dump" now the site of Giant/Jets stadium) and plink......sometimes a rat would show up. Didn't last too long

GP

[Swamp Lover]

18. Early Christians, fearing persecution....

...held services in metal tins. Tupperware and similar storage containers led to the construction of more substantial, task specific structures.

Good question. Thanks for asking.

[WillowTree]

19. Reminds me of my Dad's old poker group. They always said they were going to "Choir Practice".