Post by darkstar2 on Jul 21, 2008 16:32:45 GMT
18 2004CP Arts a Washington DC City Newspaper features an article
titled, "And He Walked On Down The Hall...To Spanish Class -
Remembering Jim Morrison's Strange Days As A Northern Virginia High-
Schooler." by Micheal Little
June 18, 2004
Morrison spent the summer of 1959 caddying at Belle Haven Country
Club, according to one retired groundskeeper, who related
how "nobody could chase down a lost ball like that boy. He just had
a nose for it." That talent, however, didn't please all of the
club's members. "One day a fellow come huffing into the clubhouse,
all perturbed about losing his caddy to a lost ball," the
groundskeeper recalled. "I had to take the boy aside. I said, "Son,
what are you doing out there? What exactly is it you're trying to
prove? And he said to me - I'll never forget it - he said, 'I want
to hear a butterfly scream.'"
One George Washington High classmate remembered Morrison as "sexy
and dangerous - a total rebel." She recalled, for instance, an
evening at the Alexandria Bowling Center when Morrison, who would
later declare himself interested "in anything about revolt,
disorder, chaos - especially activity that seems to have no
meaning," brazenly persisted in crossing the foul line,
sometimes "by a foot or more. She said, also "liked to shake the
candy machines in the hope that something would fall down." Finally,
she described Morrison as "a sore loser" : "That's when I realized
the foul-line thing wasn't rebelling - it was cheating."
A few acquaintances vividly recalled Aug 16, 1960 as the day
Morrison assumed the mantle of poete maudit of Northern Virginia.
That evening, Morrison and some friends enjoyed the all you can eat
clams special at the now defunct Beachcomber Restaurant. Afterward,
something in young Jim snapped. Scaling a telephone pole, he
commenced, in one former friends words, "to spout some lame beatnik
shit about great golden copulations." Rushed to a nearby hospital,
Morrison - who declared to doctors that he 'saw God on that
telephone pole" - was diagnosed with a severe case of food
poisoning. Nonetheless, the vision sent Morrison into a monthlong
shellfish binge, during which he frequently bragged, "I eat more
mollusk than a man ever seen."
In High School, Morrison's mordant sense of humor was already on
full display. One day when a teacher asked "how her students would
solve the problem of infants starving around the world," Morrison
hand flew up. "Jim?" asked the teacher, an elderly and genteel
Southerner. "Kill the children." After a long and uncomfortable
silence, the teacher wailed, "Jim! We can't kill the little
children!" Hilarity, naturally, ensued. And a fellow Spanish student
remembered how, upon being asked to write a sentence on the board to
be translated, a straight-faced Morrison scribbled this bit of pre
Lords and the New Creatures absurdism: "We all eat small dogs."
One George Washington classmate reminisced about one time when
Morrison had to take a leak. The future rock star didn't feel up to
a trip to the restroom, the clasmate recalled, so he urinated in his
locker.
Though his fellow students often marvel at the Rimbaud-reading
Morrison's intellectual capabilities, none of them thought he'd
become a famous pop star. "I saw him with a acoustic guitar once,"
said one. "But he wasn't playing it - he was just kinda holding it."
In fact, the teenage Morrison didn't even own a record player, and
he seemed much more interested in becoming an actor than a
singer. "He used to hang out at the Hollywood Grill," recalled
another old classmate. "He liked to pretend the Hollywood Grill was
really in Hollywood. He'd sit there for hours in his dark
sunglasses, trying to appear brooding. I think he was waiting to be
discovered." Ultimately, he was - by a truant officer.
titled, "And He Walked On Down The Hall...To Spanish Class -
Remembering Jim Morrison's Strange Days As A Northern Virginia High-
Schooler." by Micheal Little
June 18, 2004
Morrison spent the summer of 1959 caddying at Belle Haven Country
Club, according to one retired groundskeeper, who related
how "nobody could chase down a lost ball like that boy. He just had
a nose for it." That talent, however, didn't please all of the
club's members. "One day a fellow come huffing into the clubhouse,
all perturbed about losing his caddy to a lost ball," the
groundskeeper recalled. "I had to take the boy aside. I said, "Son,
what are you doing out there? What exactly is it you're trying to
prove? And he said to me - I'll never forget it - he said, 'I want
to hear a butterfly scream.'"
One George Washington High classmate remembered Morrison as "sexy
and dangerous - a total rebel." She recalled, for instance, an
evening at the Alexandria Bowling Center when Morrison, who would
later declare himself interested "in anything about revolt,
disorder, chaos - especially activity that seems to have no
meaning," brazenly persisted in crossing the foul line,
sometimes "by a foot or more. She said, also "liked to shake the
candy machines in the hope that something would fall down." Finally,
she described Morrison as "a sore loser" : "That's when I realized
the foul-line thing wasn't rebelling - it was cheating."
A few acquaintances vividly recalled Aug 16, 1960 as the day
Morrison assumed the mantle of poete maudit of Northern Virginia.
That evening, Morrison and some friends enjoyed the all you can eat
clams special at the now defunct Beachcomber Restaurant. Afterward,
something in young Jim snapped. Scaling a telephone pole, he
commenced, in one former friends words, "to spout some lame beatnik
shit about great golden copulations." Rushed to a nearby hospital,
Morrison - who declared to doctors that he 'saw God on that
telephone pole" - was diagnosed with a severe case of food
poisoning. Nonetheless, the vision sent Morrison into a monthlong
shellfish binge, during which he frequently bragged, "I eat more
mollusk than a man ever seen."
In High School, Morrison's mordant sense of humor was already on
full display. One day when a teacher asked "how her students would
solve the problem of infants starving around the world," Morrison
hand flew up. "Jim?" asked the teacher, an elderly and genteel
Southerner. "Kill the children." After a long and uncomfortable
silence, the teacher wailed, "Jim! We can't kill the little
children!" Hilarity, naturally, ensued. And a fellow Spanish student
remembered how, upon being asked to write a sentence on the board to
be translated, a straight-faced Morrison scribbled this bit of pre
Lords and the New Creatures absurdism: "We all eat small dogs."
One George Washington classmate reminisced about one time when
Morrison had to take a leak. The future rock star didn't feel up to
a trip to the restroom, the clasmate recalled, so he urinated in his
locker.
Though his fellow students often marvel at the Rimbaud-reading
Morrison's intellectual capabilities, none of them thought he'd
become a famous pop star. "I saw him with a acoustic guitar once,"
said one. "But he wasn't playing it - he was just kinda holding it."
In fact, the teenage Morrison didn't even own a record player, and
he seemed much more interested in becoming an actor than a
singer. "He used to hang out at the Hollywood Grill," recalled
another old classmate. "He liked to pretend the Hollywood Grill was
really in Hollywood. He'd sit there for hours in his dark
sunglasses, trying to appear brooding. I think he was waiting to be
discovered." Ultimately, he was - by a truant officer.