I was looking through some of my old stuff the other day. Old stuff is my term for collected memorabilia sometimes referred to by my significant other as "junk". I found my cigarette lighter. I am no longer a smoker, but for more years than I would care to remember I did take a drag off a fag.(Does that language date me?) Once I determined that there was an interval of about sevem minutes between each cigarette smoked. It seemed to fit my hand so well. The shape of the aircraft carrier is worn but still visible on the lighter. "U.S.S. Intrepid CVS-11" painted in color is readable. The engraving job on the lid and back isn't great; I did it myself in our shop. I was an electronics technician aboard the "Fighting I" and had access to a vibrating engraver we often used to mark tools with their owners' names.
I flipped it open with my thumb. It made that strong metallic click. Then closed it. Zippos make a different clicking sound when opening and closing. The Zippo cigarette lighter was first manufactured in 1936 and is considered by me as a modern engineering feat along with the P-51 can opener. But my Zippo was personalized by me when I engraved my surname on the lighter as well as ports-of-call during the time the Intrepid was home for me. A few of them bring to mind interesting events.
Olongapo City, Philippine Islands, was the first foreign port I visited. It's usually referred to as a cesspool but is a sailors favorite. You crossed a river from the naval base to an unpaved main street that consisted primarily of bars and brothels. Kind of explains it being a sailor's favorite doesn't it? In many of these places I'm told that a Zippo provided a great light source There was a place I remember where you could buy a baby duck and feed it to an aligator. This was recreated in the movie "The Intruder".
Hong Kong was an extraordinary port. I believe that you could buy anything in Hong Kong. But if you wanted something like a Russian fighter plane it would probably take more than a few days to fill your request. One of my favorite places on this island was Victoria Peak. This is the highest point on the island, and after a tram ride you are treated of a panoramic view of the island. It is also where I found out how wind proof my Zippo was. Zippo prides it self in its wind proof design, and indeed it is wind proof. What they don't tell you is that the wind blows the flame into contact with your hand. I'm sure the Chinese are still trying to translate the things I said when I burned my hands lighting a cigarette on Victoria Peak.
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil was a great place to visit, where I learned that a great steak can be had from a piece of moldy meat. It gave me the opportunity to buy semi-precious gemstones and a dried piranha. A street vendor told me in broken English that he could get me a piranha fish and I followed him as he spoke in in mixture of Portugese and English to a back street dilapidated building.
This warehouse that had all sorts of oddities for sale. There were skins of jungle cats and crocodiles but I remember specifically a snakeskin hanging from the ceiling over twenty feet long. "Anaconda,"my guide said. and I told him that a dried piranha would fit in my seabag better. I bought it from a man missing a couple of fingers who held up his hand saying "Piranha! Piranha!". He wanted my lighter for payment but he settled for five cruzeiros.
Wellington, New Zealand, this was the first port where we had seen anti-war protesters. I met a retired sergeant major of the Royal New Zealand Army there who showed me around the city and kept me away from the anti-war demonstrators. I lit my new friend's cigar with my Zippo as we enjoyed a pint under a sign proclaiming the pub as the place where Captain Cook had landed in the eighteenth century. As we left the pub he pointed out the large Maori man with traditional tattoos operating an earthmoving machine. "Those people have an uncanny skill with heavy machinery, God-given," he said. Which god, I pondered, their's or ours?
The Raffles Hotel in Singapore was very cool, exuding British Colonial charm. The television adventure series, "Bring 'em Back Alive", had scenes filmed at the Raffles. Probably one of the most fascinating things I saw there were the snake charmers. Indians in turbans would carry their snakes in flat round covered baskets. On a street corner or anywhere there was a crowd of people they would perform their act. They had a variety of snakes that they would handle but the king cobra was the most fascinating--spellbinding even. They rarely held the cobras but played their pipe over the swaying hooded reptile. The serpent would follow the motion of the charmers pipe swaying back and forth with blue eyes flashing and forked tongue sticking out. Of course you were expected to put some money in the tip basket. They would let you handle the snakes if you wanted. I declined the offer.
There are many other names of places engraved on my lighter but those names will revive memories on another day. Perhaps you have an item om memorabilia that reminds you of a special time and place.
