Zippo lighters

Rose's recent Facebook post re: smells and Kay's memory of Zippo lighter smells reminded me of the smell of lighter fluid as well.  It reminds me of my friend Al Johnson.  It conjured up lots of memories, actually.  Unfortunately, almost everyone smoked. ;-)  Including my Dad who, thankfully, quit in his late forties or every fifties.

As I read Kay's post I thought "wouldn't it be nice to have one of those old Zippos".    I goggled Zippo lighters and found pages of reference.  Little did I know that people collect old Zippo lighters!!  The human animal is able to "gild almost any Lilly." ~ if you get my drift.  Prices did not appear on the first page I "clicked".  Date of manufacture did.  So I says to myself, "self, 1957, my year of high school graduation, seems like a year of great significance.  Let us see what an actual 1957 model would cost."  $260!!!!  Geeze, I guess I will be going for the replica model @ $14.95.!


As further commentary as to why the smell of stale beer and lighter fluid combined reminds me of Al Johnson, I offer the following explanation. Al was our wrangler on the 4K dude ranch and my room mate though out high school.  We shared the same cabin on the ranch ~ probably the seed of my latent streak of independence.  Al was a fairly heavy party-er; most of the time without me, but some times with me.  He was "into" it much more so than I.  At any rate, after a really hard night in the sauce, Al would come home to the cabin, crack open a beer, and go to sleep.  I would awake to the smell of stale beer and Al drinking the before opened beer while lighting a cigarette with his "Zippo" lighter.

He claimed the practice of drinking a stale beer the morning after did not let allow a hangover to occur.   I actually liked the smell when I was sober and would some times share a drink of the stale beer with Al to start the day.  However, when I, occasionally, got a little into the sauce myself and Al insisted I practice the stale beer prevention program myself,  I have to admit all it did for me was to "speed up" the vomiting process.  It really bothered me!  Hell, I didn't have to drink the stale beer.  All I had to do was wake up and smell the stale beer!  I'm sure the combined smell of stale beer, tobacco smoke and lighter fluid would have killed me.  I never found out because I was out the door and in the pasture vomiting my socks out as soon as I smelled the stale beer.


Ah yes, the stuff of which memories are made.  If you want a genuine replica of an old Zippo, you can find one at,

USA Lighters - Zippo - 1941 Replica #1941

A steal at $14.95!