Eastside Kid: A Memoir of My Youth, From Detroit to Congress

Did you ever wonder what a member of congress was like as a juvenile roaming the streets of his or her neighborhood? Probably not. But nevertheless all of these people in our nation’s capital were once kids. They grew up with a set of interests and values that they would take with them to the halls of a great democracy. Tracing his roots back to the small and large towns in Europe, Bonior recounts for us the coming of age of his boyhood in the Polish/Ukrainian community of Hamtramck, Michigan.

The foundations of his boyhood, his Catholicism and athleticism, were where he often sought and found comfort. It was then he learned to embrace the struggle of the underdog. He was taught the value of work by a loving, yet taciturn father and grandfather. And he grew up faster than most boys his age as he lived with the specter of his mother's early death at 37 years of age.


David Bonior was a working class kid with big dreams. This book is about the lessons of his youth and how he used them to navigate life on Detroit's Eastside. How he became a leader in his community on and off the sports field and then used those skills to become not only a member of congress, but the House Whip, the number two person in his party in the United States House of Representatives.


This is a book of early memories. It's about "Elbowing his way into memory". It is about an American town where he took his first step, said his first word, and learned the fundamental life lessons that made him the legislator he was and the person he will always be.


Fully illustrated with period and family photographs, this story is an invocation of a truly American life.