It’s enough to pop your top

I witnessed something a few weekends ago that demonstrated changing realities.

On a 2½-hour trip with my daughter and her children, we stopped at a Wal-Mart along the way to pick up a few items. My 11-year-old granddaughter went off to shop and came back through the checkout lane with a retro bottle of orange pop, topped with a metal cap.

After we returned to the car, she discovered she had no means for opening the bottle. My daughter tried to twist the cap off while I looked in vain for a bottle opener.

Finally, we stopped at a convenience store to have the clerk open it, and she apparently didn’t have a bottle opener, either. She ended up using pliers to twist the cap off.

The moral of the story? Don’t buy soda in a glass bottle unless you have an old-fashioned bottle opener handy.

— ROWENA PLETT