{"id":101991,"date":"2024-06-12T15:34:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T19:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=101991"},"modified":"2024-06-12T15:35:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T19:35:10","slug":"the-old-coot-is-a-second-rate-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/06\/12\/the-old-coot-is-a-second-rate-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"The Old Coot is a second-rate opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By Merlin Lessler &#8212;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I was struggling to get the cap off a plastic water bottle the other day. You\u2019d think it would be a simple task. All you have to do is grip the bottle and twist off the cap. But, it\u2019s not so easy because plastic bottle material is so thin that when you grasp it, it squishes in half and looks like an hourglass.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you\u2019re an old coot, it\u2019s hard to get a firm grip on the tiny cap. You squeeze harder and harder on the bottle and twist as hard as you can on the cap. So hard that the hidden vein in your forehead makes an appearance, as if to ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d When the cap finally breaks loose, the water erupts from the bottle, like Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That\u2019s why I get my water from the tap. I miss the good old beverage container days. When the bottle was made of glass and topped with a metal, fluted, cork lined cap. Sure, you needed a can opener (church key) to open it, but they came free with a beverage purchase. Or, you could use the built-in opener in the coke machine, which was located all over the place. Most of the time we didn\u2019t need any of that stuff; the jack knives we carried in our pockets had a bottle opener blade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Some of the caps had a surprise under the cork lining, if you had the patience and took the time to scrape it off. You might find a dollar sign, entitling you to a free soda. Or an ace, king, queen, jack, or ten card. When you collected a royal flush, you won a special prize. Most often, you found a message that said, \u201cYou will be thirsty again in one hour.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Those cork lined, metal fluted caps were in use from 1892 until 1960. You would think I\u2019d have gotten over it by now, and I would have if I didn\u2019t get a shower every time I opened a cheap, thin, plastic water bottle.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Comments? \u2013 Send to <a href=\"mailto:mlessler7@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mlessler7@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Merlin Lessler &#8212; I was struggling to get the cap off a plastic water bottle the other day. You\u2019d think it would be a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":82683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Old Coot is a second-rate opener - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2024\/06\/12\/the-old-coot-is-a-second-rate-opener\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Old Coot is a second-rate opener - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Merlin Lessler &#8212; I was struggling to get the cap off a plastic water bottle the other day. 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