Our Uniforms at OU

A while back Gwen (Howell) Kelly and I were talking about our uniforms and I decided to do a page about all of them!!!

The first uniforms we had were the burgundy Kaydette uniforms.  These are the uniforms that the Army gave us as a result of starting CAPERS.  I was a pledge in 1967 when this yearbook picture was taken.  Some of us had uniforms and some didn't yet.  

That year before Christmas we sold Claxton fruitcakes as a fund raiser for new uniforms.  It seems we sold them every year.  In 1967 we were pictured in the campus newspaper. For some reason, we all felt like these uniforms were old, and we wanted new, better ones.  We had no idea they were probably only a year old, but assumed they had been around since 1964.

I guess we still sell enough, because here we are the next year with the same uniforms!  We decided to have the pledges wear membership cords for the yearbook picture that years, since they would be members long before the picture came out in the yearbook.

Any one else remember hating those ascots??  I finally learned the secret to getting a smooth ascot.  Three safety pins. 

By 1969, we still didn't have enough money to buy new uniforms.  But we had enough to buy material and a pledge who was an expert seamstress, Gwen (Howell) Kelly.  You can guess how she got her pledge points!  She even had to create the patterns.  She did most of the work, but remembers us helping her.  I probably did some hand work.  You will notice that Gwen Howell, Iris Rodriguez and I have on the first 3 of the new double breasted uniforms on in this picture.  They were Burgundy, too.  The pledges were back to black and white.

That spring Iris was able to get us some Army tops to use with our burgundy skirts.  I know you can't see them too well in the picture below.  The only thing nice was that they were cooler and we had 2 different uniforms to wear on the 2 days of the National Convention!  

In the fall of 1970, we decided that we wanted to attempt to start a local company, too.  The local name was "Sabers and Lace", and again Gwen (Howell) Kelly got started sewing!  The jumpers were Royal Blue with white long sleeved blouses.

Of course, we all had both of them!  This picture was taken in the spring for the 1971 ROTC Yearbook.  Front Row:  John O'Dell, our local liaison, Gwen Howell Kelly, Linda Grissette (Grayson), Paulette Kikugawa Lum.  Back row:  Jessie Elder,  Kay Johnson, Sharon Fancey.

As you can tell, we were typical young women....never really happy with the clothes we had and always wanting something new!!!

Linda

Back to the main CAPER National Headquarters Alumni page.

The creator of this website, Linda Grissette (the 1970-71 CAPER National Commander) is not asking for any money to help support this project.  Her reward will be finding people she remembers and learning about other former members memories.  If you appreciate the effort, please use her for all of real estate needs.  If you aren't in the St. Louis area where she works, she can find a great agent in your area and will receive a small referral fee.  Contact Linda about real estate.  See Linda's main real estate website.