Pull the tab...

Do you have a moment in time where you're transported back in time? Where something happens or someone does something that instantly flashes you back to another moment in your life? I've had a moment...recently!!!

When I was a kid, there were three things you could always find strewn about in our house no matter what room you were in. And all three things happen to be courtesy of my dad. Item # 1 was Q-tips. Used. Q. Tips. (I know, gross...sorry!) I don't know why but my father could never bring himself to just throw them out. Item # 2 was tooth picks. Used. Tooth. Picks. (again...I know...gross!) He also for some reason didn't know that used any-one-of-these-things-belonged-in-the-trash...but whatever...it's the past and it's not like I can tell him now or anything!!! And Item # 3 which happens to be the reason for this post is soda/beer can tabs...you know the ones on aluminum cans...that you go "Lift", and it goes "ffffssssssttttt" (as the carbonation is released, and then you push the tab back on top!!! Well, my dad used to collect these. Apparently there were some worthy cause for collecting. One that I remember was "collect can tabs and every (however many) they would donate x amount of money toward helping such and such a person get treatment for cancer". It's even been called an urban legend on this website http://www.snopes.com/business/redeem/pulltabs.asp . As far as the tabs go, this site say that it would take 1 million tabs to raise just $300...that's 3 cents per tab.

I always got yelled at by my dad if I didn't pull the tab and just threw the can away. He'd inevitably have that keen sense of a can tab hasn't been pulled off...warning...warning...bwooooop...bwooooop...and an alarm in his head would go off and there'd be lock down mode, until the situation was under control and the tab had been rescued for the garbage compactor. There was no getting away with it. There would be some sort of jar or can in any given room and they'd always be filled to the brim with can tabs...which makes me wonder if he ever gave them in to wherever was asking for them. One will never know.

So here's where it gets creepy. Last week or the week before (I'm really not sure because I've tried to block it out, which hasn't worked yet that's why I'm blogging about it now), I came home from work, hubbie spoke about seeing this sign posted up at work about if you collect such and such amount of these can tabs, it'll go to a treatment for this person's chemotherapy or something like that. I nearly had to do a double take and make sure it was hubbie I was talking to. People, I can't believe this. It's like being 10 again. Only now with the evolution of the plastic sandwich bag to high tech zip locks, we now have a zip lock bag sitting directly above our garbage can (just in case I happen to have any thought of throwing out a can in the garbage I can now think twice about it). That website above clearly says this is an urban legend. It is clearly a ploy to make people look like nimrods as they collect these things from cans each day. And really, CLUTTER!!! Why. Do. We. Need. More. Clutter? Honestly, I'm living my childhood all over again. Well, if for no other reason that this situation has come about, it gave me good little chuckle...until I realized hubbie was actually serious!!! **sigh**

Please resist the urge to send me (or hubbie) your can tabs...I'll be forced to send them back and trust me it won't be pleasant.