It’s a Wonder He Made it to His 75th Birthday

As I write these stories, I must qualify their accuracy with the note that Dave is 10 years older than me. He left for college when he was 18 and I was 8. I can recall him prior to that, but I think most of my memories must be from the period when he would return from college (Missouri School of Mines).

Robert (Bob) Kester

The person you know as the healthy eating husband-father-grandfather hasn’t always been so. Prior to the Surgeon General discovering that all things tasting good were bad for one’s health, Dave ate them all to excess. He used so much salt, dad (Daddy Bill) would get on him at meal time (maybe he was thinking about the cost, rather than anything else). Dave’s food would look like it had been snowed upon.

Once when Dave came home from college, it was in the evening and I was home alone (parents would be reported to social services in this day and time). I’m not sure if this was the spring when his route home included an unplanned detour to New Orleans. Anyway, he was hungry and looked in the fridge for a bite to eat. Using the culinary skills that everyone now enjoys, Dave trimmed the fat off of some steaks that were in the refrigerator. He then proceeded to fry the fat, put it between two slices of bread, and eat a fat sandwich. It probably had Mayo and salt on it, but to that, I cannot attest.

Dave the Sailor

All of you know Dave as the Sailor of the Seven Seas (maybe two or three but it doesn’t sound as good). His sailing adventures began a little more humbly, but with equal voracity.  Dad (Daddy Bill) always did things a little differently than other fathers. When they were buying cabin cruisers, runabouts, outboard fishing boats, etc., Dad ordered a big yellow canoe from Herter’s in Waseca, Minnesota. Canoes were a rarity in those days, we had the only one in town. I dreamed of hydroplanes and Dave dreamed of sailing ships, but Daddy Bill dreamed of big yellow canoes.

Not to let a big yellow canoe get in the way his sailing dream, Dave found plans to turn a canoe into a proper sailing vessel. He fashioned a thwart out of a 2X4. To that he added a mahogany lee board to each end (to act as a keel or centerboard). He made a mast out of ?, it was varnished. It was attached to the thwart, and stepped in a wooden square, epoxied to the bottom of the canoe. He made a lateen rigged sail out bamboo poles and cloth. I recall Mom did the sewing. All of this was connected with various cotton ropes and hardware store pulleys.

When it came time for the maiden voyage, we loaded the big yellow canoe on top of the very big yellow and blue 1959 Plymouth station wagon. Since I was not big enough to lift my end of the big yellow canoe (repurposed as a sailboat), Steve Ford, a neighborhood boy somewhere between my and Dave’s age, was enlisted as first mate. We took the vessel (I'm thinking by now it should no longer be referred to as the big yellow canoe, since it has been transformed into a proper sailing ship), to Kentucky Lake. Mind you, Kentucky Lake is the largest manmade lake in the US. To the best of my recollection, everything went as smoothly as dreamed by Dave, even though I don’t think he had ever sailed before. Two distinct things I remember were the water gurgling as we sailed along, and being disappointed because we didn’t has a ship’s wheel or even a tiller, as steering was done with a canoe paddle.

As an aside, that adventure as well as a white water canoeing adventure were done sans life jackets.

Bob Kester

Author Bob Kester got an early start on another dream--bow-hunting--with none other than big brother Dave.

Dave the Hero

Mom (Mama Nelle) had a bad habit of leaving a frying pan of oil on the stove to heat, and then forgetting it. When it became too hot it would flame up, and scorch the wall and ceiling in the kitchen, and left long enough, the house could have caught the house on fire. It happened on more than one occasion. 

When Dave was 16 or 17, he happened to find a blazing frying pan on the stove. Leaping into action, the now 75 year old, but then a teenager, grabbed the flaming pan and ran to the back door and threw it outside. I didn’t see the burns, but I do remember the gauze and salve/medicine oozing out from under the bandages. On the bright side, Dave’s employer, Albritton’s Pharmacy, where he was the delivery boy, sent him their in-house, homemade ice cream.

Bob Kester

The making of a hero (and an early "Awkward Family Photo"--yes, that's Daddy Bill with a mustache. Mama Nelle told me he grew it for a Centennial celebration and it didn't last long.)