1956

I'm uploading some of my old work from my course because I feel its some of my best writing.  Its there in bulk and I like it.

This piece was well researched due to it having to be based around something from 1956.

American Dreams

Marilyn Monroe was so beautiful.  I always wanted to be just like her and I saw all of her films.  I remember seeing Bus Stop at the East Town drive-in with Jimmy Roberts and he thought I was something else and he wanted to kiss me so bad.  Jimmy never really cared for Marilyn Monroe, but he cared for me a lot.  He kept his eyes on me the entire film and I kept mine on her. Marilyn Monroe, she was my idol and my inspiration. 

            I don’t remember the day I was born, do any of us?  All I know is I must have been the happiest little girl in all of Alabama because my mother named me Norma Jean Henderson.  I knew I was destined for greatness from the moment I could talk.  I would be a singer and a dancer and an actress.  I wanted to have my face on the silver screen. 

         The night I was there, watching Bus Stop with Jimmy, I pictured myself as Chérie, wearing that little sea green dress.  I always wanted Jimmy to be my boyfriend but I pictured us more as Lorelei and Gus from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. 

            “Norma Jean!” my mama would say to me.  “Why don’t you get that pretty little head out of those clouds and do something real.  That Marilyn Monroe is just a pair of legs for men to gawk at.  People might start thinking your one of those dykes.”

            I knew better than to back talk to her but for some reason I just had to speak out.  I love my mama but she can be so pig headed about things.

            “Mama, she is a beautiful and talented actress.  She is loving of all people, even dykes and the blacks and despite everything, I’m sure she loved Bette Davis to.”  Mama wouldn’t speak to me for a week after that.  I always thought I was like Marilyn and mama was like Bette, I was talented, young and beautiful and she was aging, bitter and resentful. 

            Things started to get serious with Jimmy.  After our end of summer date when he took me to see Bus Stop, he started to get closer to me.  He would sit with me at lunch in the cafeteria and for my birthday he used all the money he had saved from working at a local garage to buy me a beautiful dress.  It wasn’t a designer but it looked just like the dress Marilyn Monroe wore when she sang the song about diaomonds in gentlemen prefer blondes.  It was so beautiful and I knew then that I would always love Jimmy. 

            “If my mum see’s this Jimmy she will freak but I love it.  Thank you Jimmy.”  I knew I’d remember this moment forever.  This was the first time I had ever kissed a boy and it meant so much that it was Jimmy. 

            The year was nearing a close and Jimmy dropped out of school.  I thought I knew pain the day I got attacked by a dog when I was fifteen but this pain was different but it was worse.  He told me he’d signed up to join the army and that he was going to fight in Vietnam.  I cried that night.  I think Jimmy did to.

            “When I come back Norma Jean, I promise, I’ll be the man that marries you.”  I looked at him, and he was fighting the tears and he was looking at me and I just cried.  

“I doubt if I’ll be here Jimmy.  I’ll be in Hollywood, making myself, just like Marilyn.  She might be here waiting when she can’t get acting work because I’ve got all the best parts but I won’t be waiting Jimmy.”  I told Jimmy my plan and he just smiled and still fighting those tears he kissed me and said goodbye. 

            I never saw Jimmy Roberts again after that.  I saw his coffin.  I never asked whether he was inside or if it was just symbolic but somehow I knew he was there and I felt so cold seeing that box.  One day I will dedicate my best female actress award to him.