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.
About the Author: Clifford L. Braman is a semi-retired widower who went back to college, part-time, at the age of sixty-four after working for forty-seven years in the jewelry business. His jewelry career allowed him to travel to many places and meet all kinds of interesting people. Over the years, he especially enjoyed helping couples find the right engagement ring or wedding set, and hearing their unique love stories in the process.
Braman now lives in western New York. He enjoys going on regular walks to a bluff overlooking Lake Ontario, where he can sit and reflect. Grateful for where life has brought him, Braman finally wrote a book about the difficulties he overcame as a young man. The Long Dirt Road is both a story of faith and a story of love, which he promised his wife he would one day write.
