church key 'beer-can opener' is obsolete

[Dennis R. Preston]

How many decades? I remember takin a damn screwdriver to a beer can
when I didn't have no church key.

dInIs



>Why would one need an opener for a beer can? Today they are all self-opening,
>and have been for decades.
>
>If people under 40 do not know the term, it seems likely that this is because
>the expression has died out because the word is no longer necessary.
>Moreover, in the context that mcgraw describes, even I, who recall
>the word fondly
>from my youth in Iowa, would have been quite uncertain what he was
>asking me for.
>
>
>In a message dated 2/24/05 5:45:38 PM, pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU writes:
>
>
>>  A few years ago there was a discussion in this cyberspace of "church key"
>>  as slang for a bottle opener.  I had never heard the word until I went to
>>  grad school in Wisconsin, where I heard it all the time.  Nonetheless the
>>  consensus on ads-l seemed to be that it wasn't a regional expression--a
>>  judgment that seems to be confirmed by its absence from DARE.
>>
>>  Well, the other night I was at a poker game (which we call "choir practice"
>>  in the messages we exchange via the college e-mail system in the process of
>>  organizing a game).  At some point I figured it was time for a beer, and
>>  finding nothing in the host's kitchen to open it with (and possibly
>>  influenced subconsciously by the fact that this was, after all, choir
>>  practice), I asked him if he had a church key.  My question met with blank
>>  stares all around--nobody had the slightest idea what I was talking about.
>>  So this scientific sampling of seven guys demonstrated 100% agreement that
>>  the expression was unknown in the Northwest.  FWIW, all but one of the
>>  seven are in their 30s, and I think most of them grew up somewhere in the
>>  NW.  One went to college in Michigan, and I think all the others went to
>>  Linfield.
>>
>>  Peter Mc.
>>


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736