[tired&retired]

It was a 4 ft stake about 1 inch in diameter. It was a big tent to hold several hundred people.

One of those big white banquet tents.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

That's what I figured after your post, that it was one of those monster circus tent stakes.

Once I was drilling a hole in a wall and hit a water pipe! LOL, it was like the Three Stooges, with water shooting out and spraying me right in the face. Still makes me laugh.