Thank you, Times!

No, not for putting me in the Perspective section this week …

The real Jim Morrison

Re: Mary and Jim to the end, Sept. 25.

In high school I was a fan of Jim Morrison not because of his brooding rock-star act but because of a book of poetry I found in my high school library (An American Prayer).

Over the years I’ve read several books about Morrison and the Doors including the fan-must No One Here Gets Out Alive and John Densmore and Ray Manzarek’s respected autobiographies, Riders on the Storm and Light My Fire. All of these books had references to Jim’s “girlfriend from Florida” and his time in Clearwater but they were often simply filler lines without substance.

Thanks to the St. Petersburg Times and Mary Werbelow, part of this void is finally explained. Not only that, but you pass over the Morrison mythos of excess and glamor to find out more about the young-man-come-down-to-Clearwater.

Every time I read a lyric by Morrison from now on I know what to look for. Mary and Tampa Bay both are part of the equation.

John Fontana, Palm Harbor

But bringing back Calvin And Hobbes in repeats in the Floridian!