Plank Owner Zippo Lighter
(Story sent in by Heber "Bart" Hart)

When the Plank Owner lighters first became available I sent one to my Dad (May 64). He wanted to show it to everyone so he carried it in his coverall pocket.

He forgot it was in his pocket and went to work, since my Dad was a Farmer/Rancher that work sometimes got very dirty and messy. It just so happens that on that particular day Dad was operating a sugar beet harvestor and it happened to break down---so there he is on his back under the machine, in the mud and snow for over an hour, then move the machine and repeat the process until the problem was solved.

When he got back in the house that evening he discovered that he had lost his new lighter. He hunted for that lighter off and on for a couple of weeks but never found it.

After I got out of the Navy I returned to Wyoming and worked with my Dad for several year, eventually I bought the place and worked it until I retired. One day in the spring of 1995, while I was corrigating bean ground, I just happened to be watching the marker disk while approching the end of a field when something flashed brightly in the sunlight just behind the marker disk- you guessed it right- it was that very same Richmond K. Turner DLG-20 Plank Owner lighter. I don't know how many different tillage implements and harvestors had hit that poor lighter over the years but apparently it was several. The insides of the lighter were rusted and full of dirt, but since the case was made of brass with a chrome cover it survived pretty well intact.

I have enclosed a picture I made of the poor old lighter and I just thought you all might like to see it.

Lets keep in touch, and try to find more old shipmates!

Courtesy of Heber "Bart" Hart