Norma Jean Summers:
CLASS OF 1978
Maine South High SchoolClass of 1978
Park ridge, IL
Lincoln Junior High SchoolClass of 1974
Park ridge, IL
Annandale Terrace Elementary SchoolClass of 1972
Annandale, VA
Spring Mill Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Silver spring, MD
George Washington Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Park ridge, IL
Norma Jean's Story
Wow, an auto biography---(now is the time to leave for popcorn, kids) ...I think I have an overall G rating (most unfortunately)
I left Park Ridge (yeah, at 2 AM with a UHAUL...no, not really), IL at approximately 19 years. No plans. I Hated school....moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia--discovered I hated that more. Epiphany.
Met an Army Captain when my car broke down off U.S. 1 outside of Ft. Belvoir, VA (having taken my dad to the airport to fly back to O'Hare before his final retirement from Bank of America). He (Cap'n Don) offered to help me get those few odd miles back down US 1....and didn't rape or injure me (before our marriage, at any rate) He was studying at the Officer's advanced course (Engineer) at Belvoir. Wheee. File this under: 'I know how to pick 'em'......aka: 'Don't talk to strangers....'
Lacking any direction...and pretty freakin' miserable, I decided that this 'meeting' was a "sign"...so....I Joined the Army (yes, really) I suppose I could have just as easily been handing out copies of the 'Bhagavad gita' at O'Hare.
98G: Signal Intelligence-Russian Signal Voice Interception. I was slated to attend the Presidio AFTER (THAT'S THE KEY WORD: 'AFTER') Basic Training--Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. Never been so cold in my life before or after.
Plop.
Wound up weighing in at 92 lbs soaking wet at 5'9".
Hello Fitzsimmons Army Medical Centre: Denver, Colorado (maybe Aurora, but who's counting?) Welcome to purgatory. I mean, where is Dante? (when you are cold and 92 lbs, that 'Inferno' looks pretty good)
dot, dot, dot.....said Army Officer....who we will name as 'Don Jacobovitz' to keep this stuff anonymous.....coincidentally was restationed to Ft. Carson,. Colorado concurrently.
Providence? (I doubt he would agree) Voila. Somehow over a six month period I:
a) got discharged from the military (honorably, thank you very much)
b) married Captain "Donald" (he likes to be called that....go figure PROBABLY still likes to wear a uniform to bed---thankfully, i don't know) after taking a cross country trip IN A GREYHOUND BUS TO PHILLIPSBURG, New Jersey (yes, really) nothing is to good for his wife to be....apparently.
c) discovered that I was moving to Seoul, South Korea at seven months pregnant. Hard to beat that with a rock, huh?
Ah, the good old days. (I won't elaborate on that 'strip' club segment of our tour...you'll have to wait for the movie....and, uhmmmm, yeah, that means YOU TOO, Don)
So, fast forward.....I have my son Damian (**now an Annapolis Grad...what a surprise) and my darling daughter, Juliet in Seoul. Daddy is on the DMZ fighting for freedom as we know it. That brings us to 1985 and change.
We relocate BACK to Virginia.
My parents still live in Fredericksburg... so I'm happy (momentarily....as you all know how that stuff goes) and Donald (as, again, he likes to be called....reminds me of that 'Marlo Thomas' 'THAT GIRL' fodder) enters some position at Ft. Belvoir teaching with a group of guys that I have special names for that is censored in this context.
Wheeeee.
Well, Don wants me to become more gainfully employed-- Heck, earn a few bucks. Okay. So, my girlfriend in Chicago (Anne Zini--also went to Maine South) calls me and mentions that there is a blanket listing in the New York Times for a 'cattle call' (yeah, sorta) Women interested in modeling for Christian Dior in New York City.
I hired a sitter and scooted up to Midtown (1411 Broadway, thank you) via train--blindly assuming I had a shot at becoming a Fashion Model.
KISMET.
End of a marriage (well, actually, that had occurred earlier but with respect to a confidentiality agreement, I won't elaborate)
I get my two children thanks to a spiffy attorney that my dad hired after dastardly 'Don' (ha, ha) made the mistake of asking my parents to pay for his Divorce from Me (bad strategic move) relocate to Scenic FT. Hamilton (under the Verrizano Bridge) in Brooklyn, NY. Commute into Manhattan daily and work for Dior modeling initially in their showroom and later on the Runway.
I remarry. This time: Infantry Officer, Gary Oslebo. Whoop Whoop. Actually....one of the sweetest men I've ever known. We have a son (Christopher) while Damian and Juliet continue in pre school......yeah, well, you get the drift.
Bliss (for about three months....or so.....)
My father becomes ill---Colon Cancer. We relocate (Pause to resonate to the angst here) so, well, we get a 'compassionate' reassignment (and we all can only imagine Just HOW compassionate the army is) to St. Petersburg, Florida.
So ends the career of Captain Gary. sigh. So now what?????????
Well, the plot thickens (really, you don't need to read this...personally, I'm considering these musings as some form of therapy and may even erase it tomorrow)....
After almost three years in Sunny Florida, I meet a charming man named Alan at an astrology conference. I wind up getting divorced and remarried. ah, and all this time, I know, I seemed so stable and predictable.
Thing is.....Alan went to Yale and is an amazing attorney. When I met him and fell in love with him, I thought he was just another New Age Hippie SURPRISE. Just amazing. Brilliant man. Still love him to pieces (and I'm waiting for that moment...trust me) he is also quite wealthy as well as educated. Good move...I mean, not EVEN lateral.
18 years and two sons later....well. Somehow the bloom is off the rose. God knows I need some realignment.
I have ceased modeling but am not yet using a walker--thank you---and have started an import export business for luxury designer goods. Chanel, Vuitton, Versace, Hermes..... My company Yumyumcherry--sounds like porn, but isn't.... (and, yeah, do check us out on the web---more shameless web site plugs) vends throughout the US, Asia, and Europe. But,
OH NO....enter the Euro and the collapsed Dollar. What's a gal to do? I spin my biz into the Pacific Rim to court a more substantial exchange against the Australian Dollar and the Japanese Yen.
Four years elapse.....working and learning Japanese (pretty much despite myself---and, come to think of it, all odds), etc...etc. I collaborate with a Japanese woman and we begin to travel back and forth to service our retail and private clients in Tokyo/Kyoto/Seoul/Shanghai/Beijing, etc. (pretend Montage scene with great musical score) and voila. 2009/2010.
Made a lot of connections in Japan thanks to a wide client base of influential women with expensive taste in suits and handbags....durable luxury goods and husbands with fast track careers in media.
One of them has...Expand for more
a husband who works for Fuji Television in their project development department. I'm offered a role on a drama (aka Soap Opera) in Japan for Fuji Television (Channel 8) called
'Kimnpatsu'....which I spell differently each time...doesn't matter if it isn't Hiragana) I guess I'm the only blond that they can get their hands on that fits the bill.....
I accept the offer to audition for the part since the trade imbalance is now more crippling than eve and seems like a one off experience. On set, I meet Haseyama-san, a model/actor (and, to my own great shame, 15 years my junior) who is the actor in the leading roll opposite my character (and is now my co star) --all 6'3" of him.... and well...the rest is sort of a Mr. and Mrs. Smith thing. Throw some rice, blah blah blah. Arigato Gosaimasu.
.
Now, we live in Tokyo (Midtown) most of the year--and according with our filming schedules-- with periodic forays into the US--Miami and L.A. and New York City. Naturally, being a Japanese man, he is mildly uncomfortable anywhere other than Japan, They like to travel in flocks. Then, of course, there is the 'cootie' factor.
Fortunately, Keiju's english skills far surpass my Japanese. I credit that to his commitment to picking Kiwi for a year in New Zealand....God Bless. One day at a time. Toki Doki.
So--some five years (maybe six, but let's not count using more than one hand, it's depressing) ago I wrote much of the above biography. That was all Pre Tsunami (no, not just california sushi menu fare), pre earthquake, pre nuclear disaster.
I received many emails from people that I had known (thank you) who checked in with me and I guess were curious about whether I had been flushed off to sea....I decided this fine morning to fill in a few blanks. Although I still prefer live rounds.....
2012:
Ah, the beat goes on. And yes, one year and change after March 11, 2011--our 'Great Tohoku Earthquake' (as we know it)--and one massive Tidal Wave--the subsequent the meltdown of SIX nuclear reactors in Fukushima (138 miles from Tokyo--it is the Power Plant that fuels Japanese Commerce, Government, Industy) LIVE GOES ON....because quite simply, it must.
To compensate, the Japanese Government has jump started reactors 7 and 8 in Fukushima and set up a 'no fly zone' (probably more to keep International and Domestic Press out of the region than to protect the citizens) and instituted a broad and ever changing quarantine area.
Every month or so, some stoic official falls on his katana (sword) in apology for transgression in failure to oversee the mop up effectively. People are still living in shelters. Frankly, it's an island. There is no where to run.
I have divided my time more evenly between Japan and the US---production (all non essential) stopped on our filming and life has changed. I have relocated son Lucien (now nine...and wonderfully fluent in English and Japanese) to the States. My son, Damian (Engineer Officer in the Navy--nuclear submarines, thank you very much)--says that there is no risk. I beg to differ. Of course Damian just loves to be right (and in this case, I'd love it if he were)
There is no actual resolution for the Problem that exists in Japan.
We have a solid eight tremors a day--conservatively. A DAY.
They are varying in strength and most not notable--save for the reminder that we sit atop three quivering plates--Just LOVE 'that ring of fire'. I much prefer 'Ring around the Collar'.....maybe the Diet should just stick a wick in the TEPCO thing if they won't entomb it as they did to rectify Chernoybl. Oh, and they won't. They can't. The metropolis is chugging along and cesium IS being poured into the Pacific by the galllon. Glub.
Still-- All is not doom and gloom. People adapt, the human condition.
There are less lights in the Ginza and the neon is not quite as vivid. (It still makes Times Square look like a Tinker Toy by comparison)--but, for the moment, we are back in business., For my part, I am now dividing filming in Seoul and Shanghai. as well as Tokyo (China is trying with formidable might to shift the Asian film and commerce markets FROM HK to Shanghai--perhaps a delayed retribution for the British Occupation.
At 51 (GASP) I am not worried about having babies that resemble Indian Deities....8 arms and all, back to that bhagavad gita thing,...but I am only too aware that something wicked this way comes. Things that no one person can change even if they recycle every can and bottle they find. Even if they drive electric cars. Even if we all suddenly "go green"--there is no resolution.
I will not leave Japan because my husband is Nihonjin---and, Kei-chan will never leave Japan until he is laid out before family altar (Buddhist, of course) and the incense is lit.
Hachiko, akita ken.
Sa/yo/na/ra
Itsumo, Itsumodemo.
So desu, ne.
Well, I've always wanted to glow in the dark. (^0^)
Gambatte Masu.
(...and Amen)
Thanks for reading this drivel
HOPEFULLY THERE IS A HAPPILY EVER AFTER CLOSURE HERE. INSERT. (can you tell I am reading too many screenplays?) ha, ha.
-----
Dateline: 2014
(I.D. Discovery, eat your heart out).
And where is 'Edward Snowden?'
Ah, how life plays out.
I currently reside in the U.S./Japan/England.
Lots of time zones--many good friends. For that, I am thankful.
I haven't returned to Park Ridge in many years.
My dear high school friend, Anne Zini passed away roughly three years ago, and I miss her much although our lives evolved quite differently.
Of course, NOW--I see much on television about 'bullying.' Irony.
I was never successful in high school.
I WAS Not 'The Girl Most Likely To....'---but, in the end I can attest that what doesn't kill you, Does make you stronger.
I am not 'Enormous' Norma---nor 'Norma Jean, Honey' anymore.
I am not kicked, spit at, teased, heckled NOR am I a 'Victim.'
The pain of the years that i spent at 'Maine South' galvanized me.
They taught me INVALUABLE lessons.
Perhaps I owe thanks to the people who made my life Hell at that time.
We all have our own battles--I'm sure that they did/do as well.
Many of mine were self induced--I was vulnerable and an easy mark (in retrospect).
Therefore, I've never have gone to a Prom--but I've been to enough 'Black Tie' Events at 'The Everglades' club (Palm Beach) , 'AFTER' parties, and Gallery Galas to fairly compensate.
Frankly, I'd still rather be at home with a good book, a dear friend, and a pizza. (okay, just the Pizza COULD work)
Waxing nostalgic. iki ma sho ka? (romaji)
namaste
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Photos
