Nobody thought of bringing an iron when Brian Daboll and a group of his high-school buddies packed the essentials for a spring-break road trip.

Daboll saved up to cover the cost for this drive out of the western New York cold through Myrtle Beach, S.C., on the way to Florida so that his grandparents – who raised him and paid tuition to the private school where he starred in football – did not bear another expense. He wasn’t going to allow a wrinkle, literal or otherwise, to interfere.

So, the determined teenager got his hands on an iron during a stopover. Only he didn’t use it on his shirt or pants.

“He was ironing his money on the ironing board,” longtime friend Larry Tyger said, laughing at the memory. “He worked so hard for that money that he would keep it crisp in his little money clip. Now he’s got all kinds of it.”