THE PAGE'S PAGE: RARE INSIDE GLIMPSES OF SENATE LIFE OFFSET PAGES' HARD WORK

(Editor's Note: Jeni Zinner of Jackson, will be writing an exclusive column for the Jackson USA Signal this summer, depicting her experiences as a United States Senate page. Zinner, daughter of Chuck and Julie Zinner, is student body president at Jackson High School.)

I wish you all could know what it felt like to read an article in U.S. News & World Report, then look up to see the people featured in the articles standing in front of you. Or to be writing on an article for your hometown newspaper and look up to see a congressman sitting across from you, curiously watching as you write. These are only some of the encounters I have had while working as a Senate page.

The other 17 Republican pages and I start our day around 8:30 a.m. First on the agenda is setting up the Senate chamber. This involves recycling old documents and picking up new ones. We retrieve the President's gavel form the Sergeant at Arms, who keeps it looked in a cabinet when the Senate isn't in session. Unlike most gavels, this one has no handle, so it looks more like a salt shaker.

Senator Strom Thurmond comes in everyday to open the Senate around 9:30. He is the Protempore at 97 and takes his job very seriously. All of us pages love Senator Thurmond. Every morning, after he climbs the stairs into the chamber, he turns to us pages and gives us this big grin; sometimes he'll even give us Worther's Originals (the candy). A chaplain says a prayer for the Senators before we open for morning business and we all file in a line like righteous little school children and bow our heads to pray. Well, almost everybody; six pages guard the doors to prevent anyone -- including senators -- from disrupting the prayer. Thursday, June 24, 1999 the Senate began the tradition of saying the Pledge of Allegiance before opening. There's some history for you!

After opening, our normal day ensues. We sit on the rostrum and answer the BAT phone (our nickname for our non-ringing phone), water the congressmen and get them podiums. Sometimes we study our congressional Pictorial Guide, because we are required to know the 55 Republican senators by face and are tested over them.

While we sit on the rostrum, we are listening to speeches from some of America's greatest orators. Some of the senior seniors are dauntless to address the Senate and the nation through C-SPAN 2. Others, like Mrs. Collins of Maine, tremble and fidget.

During votes we hold doors for senators. That's the best way to interact with them -- especially if you're stationed by the candy desk. The candy desk, like it's name hits, is always full of candy. It's keeper, Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania, is perfect for the job, Pennsylvania, being the home of Hershey, Godiva and Mars Candy companies.

The candy desk got started when a diabetic senator started keeping candy in his desk and the other senators found out and began eating it, too. It is the only area of bi-partisan agreement.

Whenever an amendment is prepared, our job kicks in, too. We run copies to 15 rooms in every crevice of the capitol. Amendment days are very tiring. Even though there are several elevators in the capitol, there are hundreds of tourists and after a few days of being gawked at, most of us opt for the stairs. The people we run amendments to are always appreciative. I haven't figured out why, since we are bringing them work, but nearly every room has a candy bowl for pages that they keep overflowing. My favorite run is to the locked office (a.k.a. the Republican Scheduling Room); the secretary who works in the locked office, Alex, is so happy to see us. I would be, too, if I worked behind a locked door.

Sometimes the Republican Cloak Room staff sends us to senators' offices in different buildings on campus. Campus includes the Capitol, as well as Hart, Dirkson and Russel office buildings. To travel between buildings, we ride an underground railway system -- actually maintained for the senators. I have ridden in cars with Sen. Roberts, Sen. Jesse Helms (He's really kind.), Sen. Domenici and Sen. Trent Lott, among others. Once they read your name tag and see you are a Senate page and not a lobbiest, they re very open and friendly with you. All the senators are delighted to see pages; they realize we are there to serve them. I think they are also amused by our youthful energy.

During the time we aren't on the floor or doing some errand, we sit in the lobby. Senators are constantly walking by and occasionally one will stop and entertain us with a story. Just today Senator Byrd was talking to us and during the course of conversation asked us who Nathan Hale was.

"Nathan Hale, Nathan Hale," I mused. "...I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." Thank you Mrs. Counts, ninth grade American History! By the way, none of the other pages knew the answer.