Newly Released Book!

Two classmates.

One school.

Two very different realities.

This story is a dual memoir by David Waddell and Kim Bancroft, two former classmates who shared classrooms, but not the same worlds. Told in alternating voices, the book explores how class, belonging, privilege, race, and silence shaped their lives and the story their school told about itself.

Honest, moving, and long overdue, it is a story about the past that speaks powerfully to the present.

In the book, Kim writes to David:

‍ ‍ “It may be a mystery of chance that we found each other as storytelling companions. However, by choice we’ve created in each other a companion of the mind and heart in this project…

“Through these revelations we’ve shared with each other and with the larger world, we celebrate what it means to cross boundaries and speak one’s truths. May others share this struggle and this joy.”

From the Foreword by Wellington Ramsey, III, a teacher, coach and administrator at GCDS‍ ‍

In 1973, Moochie Waddell was the first African-American male to graduate from GCDS, along with a young woman. His early impression of the school resonates: “even the buildings were white.” … His story is one of apprehension, vivid memories, and a personal view of Greenwich and its social strata at the time. … Kim’s story parallels Moochie’s as far as fears, memories, and perspectives on adolescence are concerned, but that’s where the comparison ends….

            [This] memoir gives us the innermost thoughts and concerns of two teenagers caught in the midst of teenage angst, discrimination, alcoholism, wealth, and social influence.

Jabari Mahiri, Ph.D., Professor, U.C. Berkeley School of Education

David and Kim’s memoir/duet has high notes and lows, harmonies and discords—a soundtrack of lives that occupied the same educational and society spaces, but differently. Their siren’s song and warriors’ call invite us all to join in chorus. 

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