Except for those very rare times when friends hand out a really good cigar, I don’t smoke. I grew up with weak lungs so I took seriously the doctor’s advice to never smoke. Yet somehow, I have always been fascinated by lighters.
The first lighters I encountered were Zippo lighters or its imitations. Back in the ‘70s, there were few disposable lighters like the ones made in China that you can buy cheap and are thus ubiquitous nowadays.
My father, a Philippine Constabulary soldier, used to have a Zippo, which he kept even if he had already quit smoking, perhaps thinking about how it might have affected us (a rather late realization as we, his kids, spent infancy exposed to second-hand smoke).
In those days of Martial Law, I spent my childhood in awe over my father’s stuff: his razors (both traditional folding fixed blade and the safety razor that disassembled to fit into its metal box with small mirror inside), his guns (M16 rifle and Colt .45 pistol), and his Zippo lighter.
The Zippo is a refillable windproof butane lighter made of durable brass or stainless steel. The top lid of its box housing opens and closes in a snap to snuff out the flame sparked by a flint wheel. All it takes to start the fire or put it out is just a flick of a finger. For old timers, it makes that familiar clunk sound that brings back a lot of memories.
Back in college, Zippos were among the things every guy wanted to have, to carry around on his leather belt, along with a Swiss Army knife, a small Maglight halogen flashlight in holster, and Ray-Ban aviator’s sunglasses in its own leather case.
I can’t remember now how and where I found a Zippo but it was one engraved with a picture of the American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Perhaps it was owned by an American Navy personnel who came to Cebu for a quick R and R or to marry a local girl.
I refilled that Zippo with butane and bought a locally-made leather case. So for a while, I carried that Zippo on my belt with me all the time, along with my Swiss Army knife and small Maglight. I was a new father at that time, a bit wary of the dangers that the world seemed to be facing. So it felt a bit reassuring to have something to use during emergencies.
I used the Zippo in hiking trips to start a small fire to cook canned food or heat coffee along the trail. I recall how the protagonist in Graham Greene’s novel “A Burnt-Out Case” used the Zippo as makeshift stove to cook meals in the middle of the jungle in Africa.
The American soldiers did the same thing in foxholes during World War II. But they also used the Zippo to burn the huts of innocent civilians during the Vietnam War, earning the notorious name “Zippo squad.”
Increasing public awareness over the dangers of smoking and the influx of cheap disposable lighters resulted in a significant decrease in the sale of expensive Zippo lighters. The cost of lighter fuel and the inconvenience of having to carry a bottle for refills made people, smokers and nonsmokers alike, shift to cheap disposable lighters.
Then, of course, everything changed after the 9-11 terrorist attack. Airports suddenly banned pocketknives and lighters that could be used for terrorism. For hard-core survivalists, it was frustrating to be prevented from carrying your Swiss Army knife and Zippo just when you needed it most: when you travel.
I discontinued using my Zippo and kept it somewhere. I have since used the cheap disposable lighters, especially those that come with small flashlights. They’re cheap, light and less cumbersome. But they’re also very unreliable and do not last long.
In fact, the Zippo belonged to that generation of things that were really made to last. We are lucky to experience that era when you could count on things to work well and last a really long time, even outlive you. They come in the best materials, designed in precision engineering, yet are also easily repaired.
Among these are analog watches, fully manual cars, hand-sewn pure leather boots, film cameras and refillable lighters. The rise of China ushered in a generation of bad manufacturing. Suddenly, we are swamped with cheap knock-offs that don’t work well and don’t last.
Our patronage of this cheapo from China has contributed to the rise of this industrial-military bully that is now threatening us and America with war. Just as the news tell of the arrival of American warships in this part of Asia, I look at my old Zippo with the picture of the USS Nimitz on it and felt somehow reassured.