Friday, June 04, 2010

"Tena" #7


SAVE2852, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

George Williams and "Tena" pulling stakes after
a Sunday matinee only.
As you can see they only used iron unless bad
weather was predicted.
This gadget had a slot in it and you hooked it
under the stake head.
I think you were supposed to wait until the ropes
were untied but the time, the tide and the circus
wait for no man.

Posted by Buckles at 6/04/2010 06:18:00 AM

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've always been amused that you could train an elephant to pull up tent stakes and then take her to the next lot and stake her (them) on a bull line without having her "think", "Hey, why don't I just pull this out and leave."

2nd of May

04 June, 2010 13:51
Anonymous said...

Buckles,
How many thousand stakes do think you pulled over the years?

2nd of May,
No one told the elephant on the picket line to pull her stake, so she didn't do it.
Bob Kitto

04 June, 2010 18:14
J C Hall said...

To Anonymous
If elephants only knew they were being auditioned, I seriously doubt any of them would ever have touched a picket line stake.

04 June, 2010 21:07
Chic Silber said...

Was this before axles were used

as stakes or was their driver

not able to handle headed stakes

Headless stakes would certainly

be harder targets for hammers

04 June, 2010 23:47
Chic Silber said...

Is she wearing just a neck strap

Doesn't look much like a harness

04 June, 2010 23:53
DanTheBooker said...

Certainly, the first of May booking agent from Minnesota isn't the only one who has seen an elephant pull a stake, without being asked? Right?

05 June, 2010 01:16
Buckles said...

They had three types of stakes, short iron (gear heads) for hard lots, long iron, as seen above, were most commonly used and wooden stakes on soft lots.
"Tena" is wearing the stake puller used for either gear heads or long iron.
The stake puller used for wooden stakes was simply a collar with a straight chain that you would make a wrap with or a double wrap in the gumbo mud.

05 June, 2010 07:06

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)