A Vintage Petrol Lighter Story Volume 9: Waiting For The Mailman

(A Vintage Petrol Lighter Story Volume 9: Waiting For The Mailman is a work of fiction presented by DependableFlame.com)

A Watched Pot

Elston knew the mailman wasn’t likely to make an appearance before the early afternoon but he’d been sitting there watching for him and keeping an eye on the mailbox all morning anyway. The sun was bright and the day was

hot but made a little more bearable and mild by the brisk south wind that coursed through the neighborhood and his hair.

Elston received packages regularly, so he was no stranger to the “Christmas morning” feel of a mail delivery but the one he was expecting today was even more exciting than most. He’d gotten a really good deal on this group of lighters and some of these were rather scarce as opposed to the fairly common Park and Zippo advertisers he handled so often.

Receiving a new group of lighters was always an exhilarating event for Elston though it was not out of the ordinary to find some unexpected or undisclosed blemish, the disposition of a lighter contrary to the way it was described in the seller’s listing and of course, many flint tubes clogged with old, degraded flint neglected for decades. It was all a part of the thrill of the search and the satisfaction found in putting old lighters back into service.

There was a gem in this group though and some other desirable lighters as well and Elston could not wait to get his hands on them. He didn’t know exactly what to expect, as was often the case, because there were precious few photos included in the listing he’d bought them from and no alternate angles or views, just a bunch of lighters that looked like they’d been spread out on the floor and the seller couldn’t even be bothered to turn them over and photograph their back sides. There was risk involved for sure but for the price Elston had paid, there was little doubt he could recoup his money and the better question was how much of a profit he would make.

Carrying The Weight

His nerves got to him a bit as he spied the mail carrier coming around the corner of his lawn with the Large Flat Rate Priority Mail box balanced on her shoulder as she struggled to adjust the mailbag she’d half-hazardly slung over the other. For Elston, it was like pondering the contents of a Christmas

gift that he himself had paid for and yet was still uncertain of exactly what it contained, a strange combination of anxiety and enthralling anticipation. He thought the box looked awful large for the number of lighters it should contain.

“Hey Stephanie! How’s the Post Office treating you today?” Elston’s excitement was evident as she placed the package on the short red brick wall that bound his front porch and began to punch buttons on the handheld unit she would use to scan the package as delivered.

“Hello Eli…” her voice trailed off as she neglected to answer his question directly but shifted the blame to him, “…it’d be a little better if I hadn’t had to keep up with this heavy-ass box all morning!”

“Well, job security right?” Elston asserted with a laugh which Stephanie chose not to reciprocate. She scanned the box with a quick “beep!” and shot him a sideways look as she moved on to her next house and delivery.

Elston carried the box inside and prepared himself with the tools he’d need for this ritual routine. A pointed pair of scissors to cut open the box as well as whatever material had been used to protect the lighters in transit, if they were packaged well. Most sellers didn’t take the time or effort to protect individual lighters in a lot as large as this, so he would have to see.

He also cleared off the table in front of him so there would be room to place all the lighters he unpacked and had a tub of common household disinfectant cloths handy to wipe them of any dust, grime or other buildup that could hinder their operation or function. There wouldn’t be any deep cleaning or repairs, not yet anyway, just a cursory going over with the cloth to cleanse them of any dust or other contaminants that had built up over time.

Assessing The Situation

Elston’s heart sank as he pried open the flaps of the box he’d cut loose of tape with the scissors and found all the lighters just shifting around the box willy-nilly with no individual bubble wrap or protection apparent at all! This wasn’t uncommon as many sellers treated large groups of lighters like

piles of junk no matter what amount of money they’d sold for but still disappointing as the risk of finding the gem he was truly after or any of the other desirable lighters severely damaged seemed to go up exponentially.

On the bright side, there appeared to be way more lighters in the box than he had actually purchased or at least had been in the pictures of the listing. Elston loved salvaging old lighters that someone else doubted the value of so there would be ample opportunities to repair or refurbish many of these old petrol lighters and get them back into service or displayed in someone’s collection.

He wouldn’t be short of projects for a while as the box easily contained over a hundred lighters though the listing that he’d purchased pictured no more than a dozen. This was a good thing but the bad news was he still hadn’t found the gem he was looking for as he reached the final layer of lighters stacked into the box.

When he finally noticed the late 1940s or early 1950s Zippo that was his focus, he was thrilled to find that it had been placed face down in the box, hopefully at least providing some protection to the multi-color painted graphic that embellished the front of the lighter. No doubt this and any other lighter in the group had most likely taken some damage in the way of scuffs and scrapes, dents or dings along the way but hopefully no serious damage had occurred to what Elston believed to be a historically relevant lighter.

Diligence Pays

Elston had heard the term Town & Country in relation to Zippo lighters often since his entry into the vintage petrol lighter hobby. His curiosity had finally got the better of him though and he looked up an article on the

Passionate Wick website detailing the history of Zippo’s Town & Country paint process along with dates for certain changes in the process or the lighters that had been produced using these methods.

The site had pictures of examples of Zippos featuring all eight original graphics produced using the Town & Country airbrush hand painted method. Elston read and studied the article intently but it wasn’t until a day or two later while he was browsing Ebay listings that he realized what he’d learned and exactly how well some of the information from the article had sunk into his brain.

He was flabbergasted as his eyes came to rest on the main gallery photo of the listing before even clicking on the listing itself. Among a handful of lighters laying there in view was the very same black, white and blue graphic of two geese flying in unison that he’d first seen depicted in the article on the Passionate Wick!

This was a piece of history and a work of art that he now held in his own hands as he pulled it face down from the box and turned it over to examine the delicate painted design. All the paint was still intact, the only apparent damage being some discoloration of the paint over time. The lighter wasn’t perfect and definitely had been used though was in remarkably excellent condition considering the ride it’d just taken in this pile of old lighters.

(Please leave any comments, questions or suggestions in the comments section of this or any other page at DependableFlame.com. This is a work of fiction and any similarity of the characters or situations herein to those that have happened in real life should be seen as coincidental.)