Monday, October 8, 2007

Texas Homecomings

Are you familiar with a homecoming mum?

The boys would buy their date a mum for the homecoming football games. I cannot convey to you how big of a deal this was. The flower stores would just be inundated with orders and the girls would just sweat and panic every year - "Is he going to buy me a mum?! Oh my god, I have to have a mum!" The mums had fake flowers, bells, charms, names on the ribbons and sometimes, like the photo above, a stuffed animial (that one was considered a "primo" mum). And the girls, in turn, would give the boys these garters that had ribbons and bells on the them that the boys wore on their biceps.

And the bigger the mum, the more your boy liked you. Sad, but true. My biggest mum was a triple - three, big fake flowers, that took the shape of a heart. Yes, Dennis Something-er-other really, really liked me. The first couple of years of middle school, before dates or boyfriends, mom would buy me a mum just so I'd have one. It was a small, single flower with two ribbons. Everyone knew my mom bought it for me, but there were some girls who didn't have a mum at all. So, I still felt pretty damn special.

At our high school reunion, in 2003, Julie's mom bought her a mum, since our reunion was during homecoming weekend. We all had a good laugh at that. And I can say that because Julie's family doesn't read this blog.

Note the single flower. Julie's mom didn't love her as much as Dennis loved me.

I just googled "homecoming mums" and there are actual websites for them. And holy crap, they're expensive! I don't remember how much we paid back in 1990 for them, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't anywhere around $100.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hilarious. Homecoming mums are not a tradition in Southern Maryland. We just do boring corsages.

Anonymous said...

Oh my, I need to go to Kroger's and take some pictures of the whole wall of homecoming mums and send them to Dee. What a hoot! I remember 2 years ago when Jessica's was so heavy she had to carry it - couldn't pin it on her dress without her dress falling! What a hoot.

The Hamilton's said...

I have never heard of it!!! Weird! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I am a transplanted new yorker in texas - oh boy are mums important. Kind of like the giving of a class ring or boyfriend's letter jacket - if kids still do that. I have had three kids go through this ritual - and yes truthfully; i find it a little amusing. I dont understand it either but yes, the bigger the more noise it makes and the more tokens on it are signs of love - ah youth. I just dont get a lot of what happens here, and ive been here for 2 1/2 decades - sigh. Still, i love my kids and they've grown up with this tradition - so i make them. If i think of it, i'll post the photo of my son's mum for his girlfriend. (It's a three fer)

forever young said...

In Round Rock, lots of times the guys will MAKE the mums. They go to Micheal's or some crafts store and that place will have a whole load of ribbons in school colors and stuffed animals of the school mascots or something like that. It turns out that most of the guys will have their moms and sisters do it for them, so it ends up being more that your mum just shows how much your boyfriend's mom likes you.

Ioo said...

These things were all the rage when I lived in Texas... When I moved to Florida, people were like "Mums, what the ..."

Anyway, I think this is a Texas thing...