Welcome to Phyllis Kester's front porch

Entertaining short stories written for adults and older children to serve as a bridge from an earlier generation to the present

My childhood summers would find my family gathered with neighbors and friends on the front porch to sing and socialize as our houses cooled off from the heat of the afternoon. Without air conditioning, we opened the windows to let the natural breezes cool our house so it would be more comfortable by bedtime. This was before television sets in every home and cellphones, so it was a time of outside neighborhood games like hide and seek or kick the can. It was also a precious season of visiting and story telling. I loved when relatives visited and told stories about my parents when they were young.

Scripture tells us one generation should tell of the works of the Lord to the next generations. We are designed to invest in each other and sharing our stories is one way to do it. But how will our descendants learn these stories if we don’t continue to gather and retell them? As time and health permit, this website will be “my front porch” for sharing some personal family stories and other short stories.

I challenge you to begin sharing stories within your own family. Perhaps some of mine will remind you of your own, or will spur you to begin asking questions of your own relatives.

Phyllis's Recent Posts
Other Stories

Geodes--Part 2

I stumbled upon a delightful surprise as I was sifting through an old box of rocks and fossils from my earlier rockhound days. You can see it in the picture.  On January 1, 2025, I wrote about discovering mini geodes in Saltillo Surprises and how, since that 1977 family trip to Saltillo, I've been smitten with tiny geodes, spherical hollow rocks filled with mineral materials and crystals. The "surprising find" in my box of fossils was a small piece of a large geode with amethyst inside. According to...read more
Family Stories

1940s in Oklahoma

Mother was in a bind one summer in the early 1940s before I started school. Her teaching job for the Fall was contingent on her completing two courses required for her teaching degree. Hence, Daddy signed up to drive gasoline and transport trucks during the summer months to pay for her apartment and summer college expenses. This meant I received the bonus of spending the summer with my father’s parents on a farm near Wardville, Oklahoma. I loved being on the farm with my grandparents, C.H. and Arvelia Smith. They...read more
Family Stories

Buel Overcomes Adversity

Seemingly minor things may leave a permanent mark. A small five-year-old farm boy trudged along the dirt road with his seven-year-old brother toward the frame school house in rural Oklahoma where other children were gathering. The five-year-old’s usual lively demeanor had become subdued. In February, he and his brother started attending school as new kids when their parents bought a farm just outside Wardville so the brothers could walk to school together. Their parents had convinced five-year-old Buel that this...read more
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A head-on car collision. Job loss. The death of a child. Phyllis and Monty Kester survived all these crises and more. But one thing remained constant throughout: the inspirational love story between a husband and wife and their Lord. learn more