Hail to the Dinosaurs!
The big man peeled off a couple of bills and handed them to the smaller man.
“There it is!” he said.
The small man counted the bills and nodded.
“Yep! That’s it,” he said. “She’s all yours.”
The big man nodded and flexed his fingers.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Same place as before – out in the shed.”
They went to the back door, stepped outside and walked through the year to the old gardening shed.
The door was unlocked.
The little man pushed the door open, and they peered inside.
In the far corner, hidden among the bags of seeds, the gardening tools, the spades and shovels, lay an old wooden box with faded lettering.
“He carried it around in a wooden box,” said the little man. “Made it easier.”
The big man nodded. It made sense.
“What do I owe you for the box?” he asked.
“For the box – nothing! Nothing at all – it goes with dumbbell.”
“Well, that’s fair.”
“I mean – they’ve been together for so many years now – it wouldn’t do to split them up, eh?”
“That’s true.”
The little man stepped to the side.
“If you can shift the box out of the corner, we can lift it into the wheelbarrow,” he suggested. “And we’ll just roll it out to your car.”
The big man looked at the old wooden box. Once again, his fingers clenched. He felt a challenge coming.
“Let me see what I can do,” he said, softly.
The big stepped through the door and into the shed, stooping slightly, and walked to the old box.
He took off the lid.
Inside, lay an enormous black iron dumbbell – with a handle just under 2 ½ inches thick.
It weighed 172 pounds.
It had been owned by a legendary strongman named Thomas Inch – who was for many years the only man in the world who ever lifted the dumbbell.
It even had a name:
THE UNLIFTABLE DUMBBELL
The little man was Bertie Lightfoot. He had purchased the Unliftable Dumbbell from Reg Park, who had purchased it after Thomas Inch died. Park had tried to lift the dumbbell – but strong as he was, he had not been able to do so.
The big man was David Prowse, the British Champion in Olympic Weightlifting – an enormously powerful competitor in the Highland Games – one of the very few men in history to lift the world-famous Dinnie stones -- and one of the very strongest men in the world.
Prowse wrapped his massive right hand around the dumbbell – and pulled as hard as he could.
The dumbbell shot up like a rocket – still in the old wooden box – and sailed up so high that if Prowse had dipped he would have cleaned it.
Prowse shook his head in amazement.
Bertie’s eyes popped out of head.
“I don’t think you’ll be needing that wheelbarrow after all,” he said.
Now, that was a golden moment in Iron Game history – and I’m sharing it with you because my friend Bill Hinbern has just put out something new and exciting.
No, it’s not the Unliftable Dumbbell – it’s a modern reprint edition of an extremely rare old book authored by Thomas Inch. The title is “Scientific Weightlifting.”
It will make a great addition to your collection -- you can find it right here:
http://www.superstrengthtraining.com/thomas_inch.html
As always, thanks for reading – and if you train today, make it a good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. We’re still taking donations to the Harry Paschall Memorial Fund. If you missed the announcement, please read about it here – and watch the video of my visit to Harry Paschall’s grave:
http://brookskubik.com/paschall_memorial.html
