The Tradition Branch

Written in a tone reminiscent of Leave it to Beaver, The Tradition Branch is a simple story about tradition. Tradition in a large family. Tradition in a small town. The story contains no murder, no intrigue and no evil antagonist. Unless you consider a beaver, a forest fire and an avalanche evil atagonists. This story follows an adolescent boy through his teen years and into a marriage and children of his own. The Tradition Branch is set in a fictional small town in West Virginia. I won't go so far as to call it quaint but it's very close. The town is full of characters that play an integral part in this boy becoming a man. They help him on the path to learning the power of tradition. The boy, Jim, is expected to follow his Father, Brothers, Uncles and even Grandfathers into a lifetime of working on the floor of the local steel mill. A tradition that spans generations of his family. Only, there is a problem. Jim has dreams. Dreams that don't include working as a steelworker. When he dares to talk about his dream of going to college and leaving the small town, Jim is rebuffed. His dreams won't come easy. Changing tradition is difficult at best. His dream rejected, Jim searches for a way to deal with his disappointment. A sledding accident launches Jim into the air (literally) and starts him on a journey creating his own tradition. The tradition involves the pine tree that saved his life when his attempt at sledding down a hill went awry. Trying to keep his tradition alive teaches him how important they are and how hard they are to keep. After gaining respect for the family tradition to go to the steel mill, Jim finds a compromise that keeps him in the small town but able to fulfill his own dream at the same time. Along the way he finds love. A love that helps him stay honest to himself his dreams and his traditions. Hard times come to the small town and Jim's family finds their tradition slipping away. Jim makes another compromise to help his young family survive and finds himself far from the small town, his family, and his own personal tradition. Through a twist of fate, a tragedy is turned into a powerful show of love and an unlikely way for Jim to keep his tradition alive. The Tradition Branch is a story of a young man that finds the strength to cut against the grain in his own family, suffer through difficult change and along the way find a way to keep and change the traditions of his family.