You were allowed to have music playing devices! Whoa that would have been nice (even with censored media) but we had no such luxury! The only approved of music was the 'live version' of hymnals sung in church.

Our big thing was having books that we were not supposed to have because of course those also had to be specifically approved.

On the bright side some of those 'secret' contraband books were the Lone Wolf 'choose your own adventure' books and I gotta admit... they had quite the impression upon me... and offered a nice mental escape from all the indoctrination (brainwashing) that I encountered at the place.

Ugh yeah that sounds wretched being stuck there full time like that. I would have also run away under those conditions. Fifty-five miles on foot as a kid is quite the feat. I bet that was frigging grueling.

It sounds like that place was super isolated!

Over the last few years I have written out a few of the more 'challenging' (troubling) experiences of my life and it sure was liberating/freeing to do so. It also gave me a perspective about the events that I never had as a kid.