The Zippo Lighter
submitted by G706
I have been carrying a Zippo lighter in my pocket for 4 years now, even though I don’t smoke. I carry it to honor a memory.
Uncle Rudy was not really my uncle, he was married to my dad’s first cousin, but when I was a child every adult who was familiar enough to not need to be addressed as Mister or Mrs. was referred to as Uncle or Aunt out of respect.
I remember him as a friendly, solid man, a sharp mechanic who worked at the local car dealer and played trombone in the band at the First Baptist Church. I know he served in the Pacific during World War 2 and had some health issues from that time. He died in a car accident when he was only 58.
Aunt Irene played the piano at the Baptist church. She never remarried and lived to be 96 dying in 2021. That summer her family had an estate sale at her farm. I was looking through the tables of knickknacks and stuff and saw the Zippo laying there among the bits of jewelry. I picked it up and paid the dollar price, took it home and replace the flint and filled it.
I like to think Uncle Rudy carried it during the war, but as far as I could know he never smoked. I looked up the serial number, it was made in 1966 so it was probably just for starting fires. Doesn’t matter to me, it’s a reminder of my neighbors and relatives of my father’s generation that served in Europe and the Pacific. The ones who came back and fought the demons of war silently or carried the wounds of battle and those that never came back.
