The Long Dirt Road: A Short Story with a Long Reach

Over fifty years ago, Clifford L. Braman was a student at a private Christian high school in central Florida-a place that should have nurtured, strengthened, and prepared him for the world. It did, but not in a positive way; sadly, its administrators and teachers introduced him to the hardships of life through their own harshness and deceit.

Students were subjected to a multitude of rules, some strict, others utterly ridiculous: no movies, no dating the same girl twice in a row, having to say "good fortune" rather than "good luck," no singing Negro spirituals.

And while the faculty would teach on Christian virtue, they saw nothing wrong with using students as spies to report-or gossip-on other students, or publicly degrading and falsely accusing students (for example, calling a girl a whore because she washed her hair without permission).

It's nothing short of a miracle that throughout this experience Braman was able to hold fast to his faith, his friends, and even his first love-who would later become his wife. The Long Dirt Road is an honest memoir about overcoming hardships and finding the way to enjoy your life, replacing bitterness with gratitude.