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
Family Stories

The Real You

It didn’t surprise me that Pastor Gates, who opened and closed each Vacation Bible School day with magic tricks, chose my younger son as his assistant. David, though barely a teenager, had already shown leadership in his Boy Scout troop, demonstrating his comfort in leading programs for large groups. When the pastor’s wife, who had worked as a clown for parties, offered to teach David how to apply and remove the makeup necessary for him to look like a clown, he accepted his role as an official VBS...read more
Family Stories

Charles Melvin Kester, Our Prodigal

Every time I look at this picture of my son Charles in his forties, on a motorcycle, heading to a church baptism that was moved to the river at the last minute, I marvel at how much that single image captures his independent, outside-the-box spirit. Born 1/19/1968-–Died 3/3/2014 “Hand me your keys, Charles. You knew there'd be consequences for your actions. You won’t be driving your car for the rest of this week.” Charles briefly glared at his father, who was sitting on the sofa, before...read more
Family Stories

Singing

The young man on the right side of the picture is Buel M. Smith, my father. He graduated from Limestone Gap High School in May 1931, and this picture was likely taken when he was about 16 or 17 years old. He is holding the winning banner after what had first seemed like a catastrophe for four high school teenagers who traveled about the state of Oklahoma singing in quartet competitions. Their small rural high school in southeastern Oklahoma did not have all the things we expect in our schools today. However, at that time,...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