WIStory: Who were our teachers as students?

V: “Yes, there are some kids who are uniquely more brilliant, and other kids work hard. But you’re all in the same boat.” How would you describe yourself as a teenager?

D: “Earnest. I was a really academic kid, very grade focused. And I was really into theater and stuff. I was not into science at all.”

G: “Introverted, subjugated and abused. If you grew up in the 60s in South London, it wasn’t exactly party time.”

V: “Awkward, because I thought that everybody was talking about me when nobody was.”

What were some of your favorite hobbies?

D: “The guitar. When I was much younger, I was always on the monkey bars. I definitely was a naturally athletic kid.”

G: “Aside from sport, I would say that I made a lot of models of anything from aircraft carriers to Roman soldiers.”

V: “Oh, I loved to read romance novels. And I did embroidery. What else? I chatted a lot. Talk, talk, talk.”

V: “I love geography. I liked chemistry. Because you know, it was natural system.”

What is one thing you wish you had appreciated more in the moment of being a student?

D: “My teachers. I wish I had done a little more to thank them. And I wish I’d played a sport. It would have been better being the worst kid on a team than not being on one.”

G: “That would have necessitated opportunity, and there was none. But I couldn’t see that the grass was greener in the next field because the fences were too high.”

Did you have any favorite musical artists or bands?

D:“I was lovingly teased for being 30 years too late in all of my music taste. Like Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan. But I did get really into Guns and Roses when I was in seventh grade.”

G:“In the late ‘60s, I started listening to a small transistor radio… a little brown cube thing. And you could pick up radio Caroline, for instance. I liked the British Invasion… I liked [Jimi] Hendrix.”

V:“In my older teens, we watched [music] on TV. I like everybody from the ‘80s, I really do. I like Wham and Duran Duran.”