I chatted with a couple of pages this afternoon. Both girls, they looked to be maybe 10 to 12 years old. I asked them who the best tippers were. Without much hesitation, one girl volunteered that Del. Bill Janis (R-Louisa) is a great tipper — he routinely tips $7 in exchange for fetching a drink or some paperwork. Del. Glen Oder (R-Newport News) is good, too. Finally, the younger girl eagerly pointed out that Del. David Toscano (D-Charlottesville) had recently tipped her $7 “just for a spoon and a napkin.”
I believe I’ll need to start bringing David spoons and napkins. There’s gold in them thar hills.
Ah, pages. I’d laugh harder at this story had they not turned my application down. Hehe.
Isn’t that kind of weird? Delegates tipping 12 year old girls 7$ for a spoon? Freaks me out I tell you what.
I think it’s nice. :)
Virginia’s page setup is much different than Ohio’s. Pages in the Ohio legislature must be in college (which removes the weirdness of 10-year-old girls and adds the lure of 18-year-old college girls, so I don’t know what’s worse); we also were definitely not tipped for our work. Occasionally a legislator would let us keep the change but only rarely.
I’m sure everyone who reads this site is familiar with Rep. Jean Schmidt, who is now representing the Cincinnati area in Congress and made a fool of herself a couple months ago. While she was in the Ohio House, she actually sent a page back to a lunch spot because she ordered half lemonade and half iced tea, not just iced tea with lemon. I’m sure the page would have appreciated a tip for extra tip, but I suppose her tip would have been, “Get it right the first time.”
One question, though: Why aren’t these 10-year-old girls in school?
The pages are in the 13-14 year old age group. They have enforced study halls every night and they are required to keep up all of their home school studies.
There are chaperones and a couple of people available to help with them with their required work if they get stuck..
My son and daughter were pages. It was an outstanding experience for both of them.
I would recommend it to any child who is disciplined enough to work and keep their grades up.
Unless you are related to a judge, city councilman, elected official etc, it is difficult to get an appointment. ..especially now that R’s rule the roost there. “Nobodies” like my children must be outstanding students of course, but also begin to make the contacts quite early on. It is a hard battle, but it can be won.
Also, it was no secret that all of the pages tried mightily to sit on the Democratic side of the HoD because they were MUCH better tippers than the Republicans.
I wonder who are the tightwads?