Hi !
When I was growing up, my Dad smoked cigarettes. He started when he was a teen and smoked till his end. When I was young, it was before the dangers of smoking had become a huge public issue, so we thought nothing of it.
My Grandfather smoked too, my mother's father, we called him Pa. It was just a thang and nobody paid any attention to it or indicated anything negative about it.
Opps ! ha ha.... Pa with a cig and my younger brother with a banana.
Back in the day though, before lighters became disposable and throw away, my Dad always had a Zippo lighter in his pocket, which occasionally he would have to fill with lighter fluid to keep it lighting up. I can still see him, flipping open the top that had a distinctive "clink" and dragging his thumb across the flint wheel causing an instant flame to pop up. It also had a distinctive clack as he closed it back. It had an interesting smell too, the lighter did, of light fuel and singed wick. Not wonderful, but somehow not bad either.
I have always found this photo humorous. He was conducting a burning school, teaching volunteer fire fighters how to safely put out burning houses.....with a lit cigarette in his mouth? LOL.... I don't know exactly why that is humorous to me, but it is.
The point is really, that is just some of the history for the rest of the story.
In the fall of 2015 my older brother David had been diagnosed with cancer. We often communicated by emails because he lived an hour's drive away. We always had communicated a lot by email, so that was not new to that particular time. Although I can't remember how it came up, one time he shared that he had a Zippo lighter like Dad's. He had never smoked, but on rare occasion, he would come across it, take it out, flip the top open a few times, listening to that familiar clink from so long ago. (You have to hold it in one hand and flip it open with your thumb to get just the right clink) Then he would light it up for a moment, then flip the top back down to extinguish the flame and in a minute, open it back up to get a whiff of that smell that reached deep into that long ago, familiar place of memories.
When he wrote about it, I could actually hear that clink in my head and remember that light smell that only wafted for a scant moment. I told him that I remembered that too and maybe, just maybe, I would buy myself one too at some point.
Before the end of that very week, I received an Amazon package and found that he had sent me one and had also included the biggest can of lighter fluid I had ever seen !
I had not expected that at all and was so very delighted.
I immediately pulled it apart and added the lighter fluid, opened and closed it several times using only one hand and then ran my thumb across the flint wheel immediately causing a flame to appear
I kept it out and about for a long while and occasionally would light it up a few times. I might have even refilled it a couple of times too. Eventually I put the lighter back in the velvet drawstring pouch it came in and boxed it up to move. I keep it in a small treasure box that holds small trinkets and etc associated with my brother and dad.
Now it not only holds old sweet memories of my Dad, but also my brother who gifted me with it.
Before it goes back up now, I will have to strike it up a few times here and there, listening to that familiar clink & clack and getting a light whiff of that long ago memory.
After a while, when it runs out of fluid again, I will move it back to the treasure box.... till next time.
It's Vaca Wednesday here again. I am working on small projects of cleaning out my house still, lazily that is and doing some of nothing and other stuff. LOL
Hope you are all doing well.
Love you !
Jacey
Congratulations @jacey.boldart! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next payout target is 3000 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because your rewards can be split into HP and HBD
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
Aren't memories funny things? A lighter of all things, but, it is the memories it evokes that make it such a treasure. I have a little trinket box too, to keep all those special things in one spot, never to be lost in the midst of my other things around.
I must say that this entire piece has turned up the nostalgia for me and I remember everyone having a zippo. It really was a thang!
❤️ It's always been the small things for me. Love to you.
They ARE funny !
The smoking and the lighter are not in my first or main memories of my father when I normally reflect back, but when pulling that memory forward and having this little lighter in my hand, it still whisks me back all the same.
Of course we weren't allowed to play with his back then.....
My treasure box is just a very sturdy cardboard box with a lid, but today I thought about acquiring a box that looks more worthy for my treasures. I'm not dashing out to find one, but one day, I will run across the right thing, I just know it !
XO
You will.I found one in South America! It was crafted from local wood and had stones inset on the top. The minute I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for that. You'll find one. Right there in front of you and you'll know it's the one.
I have had one since the 90's. I never smoked but a cigar now and again. I used to do the open close as a stress relief! I still have a couple that we fuel. Love everything about them!
I have a bottle of syrup. My (step?)father gave it to me many months ago. I still have many in it. It is a very pleasant thing, because while I do not know whether he is my real father, but when I visited him, I felt that he is my real father based on his very kind behavior. Things like only a real father would do. For example he invited me for a dessert of my own choice and a drink. And he also gifted me a small amount of money, saying "buy something more than the train ticket". Only a real father would do these things.
WOW!!! The have a thang!
A zippo!