Life before the Tylenol incident,back about twenty or thirty years ago, was much simpler. At that point in history a deranged man(?) decided to bring down the pharmaceutical company that manufactured Tylenol. He somehow arranged to remove a bottle of Tylenol from a drug store shelf and replace the capsules with a deadly foreign substance and place the bottle back on the shelf for some unsuspecting shopper to buy. As you may well imagine this single act had a cataclysmic effect on the packaging and labeling habits of companies across the entire spectrum of merchandise.
You could no longer simply open containers and go on about your business. In some instances you needed a tool of some sort to do the task. Despite the fact that there were some containers labeled 'child proof' (that only children could open) there were many items that could not be opened even by children! I did lunchroom monitoring for many years and was called upon to open juice boxes, Twinkies packages, Lunchables, and other boxed items. (I found that a push pin was an invaluable tool to carry with me to assist me in opening cheese sticks, yogurt containers and other edibles.) Shrink wrapped foods were, and still are, extremely challenging!
In every day life from that time on packaging became more and more complex. Creative packaging was no longer limited to food and drug items. Things like batteries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and the list goes on, are all encased in plastic. Some things are so tightly packaged that one would think that the fear of the item getting away drives the packager to greater lengths.
As the packaging rage flourished my ability to open things diminished. Gradually my hands lost their strength. I had to have Doc open more and more jars,and when he was not available I perfected the art of opening most small jars with the nut cracker. If the lid was larger than the scope of the nut cracker I had to get help. I have been known to use the pliers to open some of the "squeeze here and turn" bottles like Clorox, Listerine and others. I've been considering asking the bag boy to loosen the lid on the Tide bottle at the grocery. I've had to postpone my laundry duty on days when my efforts to open the Tide bottle have not met with success and my hands hurt from trying. I can come back the next day and give it more tries and finally get it open. The nut cracker can assist me with the milk bottle lids, and condiment lids. The "push down and turn" containers can be very intimidating!
Remember when you could open the cereal box and then pull apart the lightly sealed inner bag that contains the cereal and pour the cereal in the bowl and then roll the bag down to insure the freshness of the rest of the box? Now, I have to resort to the scissors, which I keep handy at all times, to cut open the bag and still try to leave enough that it can be rolled down. Alas, poor me!
It has come to the point that all I can easily open is a book and a bottle of wine. The wine, I have Stephanie to thank for because she gave me an electric wine opener! When frustration and discouragement reach the lowest point it can be very relaxing to open my book and pour a glass of wine and bask in the comfort of my Bogart blue lounge chair and read! Ciao.
Note: if you buy pasta that was packaged in Italy you can easily open it, put it in boiling water and be ready to eat it in record time holding a fork with pain free hands.!Ciao,Ciao
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