For 18 years Kate traveled with this handsome all-wood booth with its own roof and awnings and no side curtains. It was built of solid maple by Dick Jones from a design adapted from a woodworker's adaptation of a four-poster bed (thank you, Rick Moran!). Come wind and rain, special clear plastic panels had to be tied to the upper rails and fastened at bottom. If storms were expected, these shower curtains were installed from the start and just rolled down. Each side had 3 sections that overlapped, depending on where the wind came from. It required climbing on the tables to empty water out of the awnings, even after lengths of PVC pipe were wedged into them to reduce pooling.

In the last couple of years of use, Kate would have to tie together the roof boards and arches with rope to keep them from falling out in heavy winds. Oh my, the poor thing had enough ropes to impersonate a sailing ship. And most of the ropes had names, like Hercules, Apollo and the Valkyries, Abel, Baker, Charlie and Dog.

Assembling the long shelves was always a puzzle, as the 8-foot boards had to thread into the openings of 3 ladder-like supports, balancing on the center one until the end pieces slid on. That required an extra 8 feet of open space or invading the neighboring booth for clearance. Our friend Fabian had built this ingenious structure so one person could do it alone. It stood on the back counter and was tied to the corner posts, nicely fortifying the whole thing. The shelves continue to be in service for conferences, workshops and other events that require a display fixture for books, magazines, posters, etc.

The entire booth, minus the shelves, makes for a great little food service kiosk for occasional parties, set up on the back lawn. That's as far as this retired structure travels these days.