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Someone once asked, “Can you make something out of this can?” I answered, “Can I? Absolutely, I can!” That has set me to thinking about all the different things that can be made from tin cans. Back before children had so many “store bought” toys, they made their own. My dad’s generation did much of that, and some of them from cans. I have made a few myself. 

Of course, one of my first uses of the lowly tin can was for a pastime known as “Kick the can.” It’s an activity born out of boredom. It requires a tin can, a bored kid, and shoes suitable for kicking the can down the road as far as possible.  Then, you repeat the kick until you get where you’re going, or get tired of kicking. A word of warning though; If you didn’t look up occasionally, you could end up who knows where!

When soft drinks began to use aluminum cans for their drink containers, we began to use those cans for a variety of things. One involved stomping our shoes down in the middle of the side of the can, causing it to wrap around our shoe and cling on. Then we walked with that can on the bottoms of our shoes.  It sounded like giant shoe taps or horseshoes! I loved that sound. Mama did not, especially inside the house!

When my dad was a boy, he built tin-can howlers or dumb bulls. Those are simply a tin can with a string running through it. You pull on the string with a wet cloth and get all kinds of interesting sounds. I would call it music, but others have called it noise. The bigger the can, the deeper the noise. Lately, I’ve made a few of those too.

Long before we had cell phones, we made tin-can telephones. Those were similar to tin-can howlers, except there was a can connected to both ends of the string. The receiving party held his can to his ear and the calling party talked into his can. The string served as a conduit and actually carried sound to the other can. You didn’t even need a dime to call!  

We also made tin-can stilts. This required two tin cans, one for each foot. You drilled holes through both cans and tied a knot on one end of two long cords. We threaded the unknotted ends through one of the holes of both cans, from the inside, and threaded the other end through the other holes from the outside. We pulled the slack through enough to tie a knot on those ends. Then we pulled both knots tight and this created a loop we could hold in our hands. We stood on the bottom of the cans, held the long cord in our hands and walked on our homemade tin-can stilts. With enough practice, you can even run on them, but please be warned, ankles may be turned! 

Recently, two of my lifetime passions came together in a way I never imaged. I have played stringed instruments since I was a child. I have also always loved to build things, especially out of wood. This summer, those two passions met one another when I went to a cigar-box guitar workshop. I learned how to use my woodworking skills to build a stringed instrument. A tin can, can also be used, instead of a cigar box, to build an instrument called a canjo.  

The Apostle Paul said, “I can do all things, through Christ who strengthens me.” Can we? Yes, even without a tin can, yes, we can!