First Zippo Lighter ever obtained.

How did you obtain your first Zippo windproof lighter?

I shall commence my sharing around my first Zippo lighter. It's being known that Zippo has been a famous American icon over 8 decades. While growing up i'd been exposed to this symbol from various western shows, by words of mouths too. Such factors unconsciously navigated towards a hobby which brought many colors into my life, now & in times to come.

Internet spurred my interests further. A YouTube video was the spark igniting this enthusiasm, all began as a sudden recall of faint memories & itchy typing of the keyboard.

Immersed in curiosity & apprehension, i headed to a local fashion retail '77th Street' where the only place i could recall selling genuine Zippo lighters. There were stereotypes, having a decent lighter associates with smoking or arsonist behavior so it seemed. Me don't smoke anything, nor possessing a need to get one.

Guess it was fate & temptations which couldn't be restrained.

Regular Street chrome: 

 ( words engraved at a later period)

The dude convinced me of buying my first lighter, well. .  happened to be a sales person describing kids buying Zippos for doing tricks & collections. Such a trend isn't widely observed though. Seen a  statistics saying a large percentage of Zippo collectors globally aren't smokers. Hard to believe. 

Image abstracted from:
http://search.insing.com/business/77th-street/thomson-sin-ming-bishan/id-f9620100

Though YouTube kick-started it all.. Mine's first Zippo scooped-up inspirations to explore into the pieces of brass, steel & rayons. Their lifetime warranty of every lighters from the beginning, stood firm testifying this enthusiasm for beginning a collection. Deep rooted histories of the company & places some lighters went through, reaffirmed my decisions to walk into a world of collecting. 

Most critically, Zippo lighters are still made in their hometown of Bradford till this day, guarding tightly to the American-made qualities. 

If there's a product company, committed to their stuffs & the users, true to their claims while regarding customers as customers, me can only think of Zippo mfg. Where else can you find a place providing an unquestioned warranty for each products long as it exists?