“Shaker Table” is the first in a series of anecdotes, told by Walt Koken, from the days prior to, during, and after the time of the Highwoods Stringband.

In early June of 1971, I set out with Bob Potts and Mac Benford from the San Francisco Bay Area in Mac’s 1953 Ford panel truck for points east—specifically a fiddler’s convention in Marion, Virginia. We got a slow start, since just the rounding-up of the individuals involved some traveling. Mac was living in Richmond, Bob in Berkeley, and I lived in Bernal Heights in San Francisco. Consequently by dusk we were only climbing the Sierras. Bob had previously done lots of carpentry, having been apprenticed to his father at one point, and he had helped build a vacation cottage for a friend near Donner Lake, so he suggested we stay over there.