By Julie Price, Senate, 1972
Julie Price, Senate, 1972, at Homecoming 2012 with Patrick Hynes, Senate, 1963.
The arrival of the first female pages in 1971 presented Josten’s, the official page school jeweler, with a challenge: Create a class ring suitable for the girls. Senate Pages Julie Price and Paulette Desell, both ’72, were the first females to graduate from Capitol Page School.
I was asked by a male faculty member to help select a girl’s ring, because the boy’s ring they had in the past were too large and boyish. He gave me a catalog from which to choose and I remember examining the styles and stones. I decided on an oval shape with an amethyst stone. The rings arrived before CPS graduation in 1972. I never considered not getting one, as it seemed like the thing you did, like getting a yearbook. Before coming to CPS I attended a hippie boarding school where there was not even a discussion about class rings!
Getting and wearing the ring was a ‘high’ because at the time, I had few rings and considered jewelry of any kind as kind of out of my reach.
I enjoyed wearing it after high school, I thought it was pretty. I stopped wearing it when I became self-conscious about the attention and questions it attracted. Though I was proud of my experience as a Page, talking about it felt like bragging, which made me uncomfortable.
Now, I wear it occasionally. It has many memories attached, but doesn’t evoke the ‘oohs and ahhs’ it used to. My husband, Rob, and son, Michael think it is nice. I suppose I’ll pass it on to Michael some day and hope if will be meaningful to him.