The phone rang the evening of July3rd. "Hello, Sir, this is Trish, co-ordinator of the the town of Gold Hill4th of July Celebration, and we'd like to borrow your anvil." "My Anvil?"I asked. "Yes, what kind do you have?" "A GE, the new model with the cliphorn," I replied. "How much does it weigh?" the friendly female voice asked."A little over a hundred pounds, I guess". "Good. Can you be there by 12noon so we can test it?" I thought to myself, test it? "Sure! But I assureyou that it works just fine!" I was stumped thinking about what they wantedit for.
The next day I drove my rig overfrom my place to Gold Hill, to their softball field, where there was astage being set up, banners were being strung up and a ball game was windingdown. This must be the place. The view was spectacular. The ContinentalDivide was visible to the west with it's snowcapped mountains, and to theeast, the plains were clear all the way to Kansas.
One of the town's oldtimers, a wellweathered ex-miner named "Red," came up to me as soon as he saw the forgein the back of my truck. "You must be Mike. My anvil's over there. I'llhelp you move yours over to mine," Red said, the Red Man drooling out ofthe corner of his mouth onto the suspender of his overalls. I was reallystumped now about this whole thing. When we got over to Red's anvil, Inoticed that it was half buried in the ground, with the base sticking up.He had an old one, and the center of the base was partly hollow. Afterbringing my nice new GE anvil over, (it was a beut!) Red got out some blackpowder (gunpowder) and filled up that hollow center in the base of hisinverted anvil. After laying a 1 foot length of fuse across the base, Igently set my anvil on top of Red's anvil so they were base-to-base, withmine right-side-up on top. Red sent me to clear the area. "Now we're goingto shoot your anvil" he said. "Fire in the hole!" Once clear, he lit thefuse. We ran for cover. Blam!
My GE was airborne! It went so farup that it was just a little dot in the sky. Kinda looked like a bird!Then it came down with a vengeance! Spinning wildly, it took a curve andheaded straight for Trish's old '72 Duster. With a loud slam that soundedlike a big can opener, my GE anvil sliced through the top of her car, throughthe front seat, through the floor and buried itself halfway in the ground.Cheers roared from the crowd that was watching. Red and I walked over tothe car. I looked in through the hole in the roof. "Looks like your anvilwill work just fine," Red drooled. Trish came over and agreed, mentioningsomething about wanting a sunroof anyway.
Soon Red and I were getting thisanvil trick ready for the finale. When we shot it off just before duskto kick off the celebration, it flew high and made a wide smooth arc. Cheersand applause echoed across the field. Without any obstructions, it camedown hard and completely buried itself in the sandy ballfield. I ran overto dig it up. When I did, I saw that it didn't have a scratch on it. Icontinued to use that anvil for another seven years! Disclaimer: DON'TTRY THIS AT HOME! My applause to GE for a fine anvil!