Don’t lose your Zippo. Lifetime friends are rare.

In 1951, sailor Tom Rotsinger dropped his Zippo lighter into the Port-au-Prince harbor.

“I had to dive 20 feet for it,” Tom said. “I wiped it off — it still worked!”

A few months later, his Zippo fell into five gallons of paint. “I fished it out, and cleaned it up. It still worked!”

Off Greenland, he accidentally left his Zippo in a navy foul-weather jacket. A buddy returned Tom’s lighter when the jacket was reissued.

“It still worked!”

But one day — after 16 years — Tom’s spunky windproof Zippo didn’t work.

We fixed it free.

You see, Zippos were invented by an unreconstructed Yankee craftsman who believes that his lighters should always work. Or he fixes them free.

So keep an eye on your Zippo.

Lifetime friends are rare.