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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Is it just me??

Budman and I were walking to our car this evening, and we saw a sign for this place, advertising mums and garters.

Budman asked what that meant, and I just said "It's Homecoming season, dear."

He didn't know what I meant by that, and asked for more clarification. As I'm explaining Homecoming Mums/garters, I realize that he has ABSOLUTELY no idea what I am talking about.

Me: "Wait, what did y'all do for Homecoming in Arizona?"

Budman gave me a blank look, and I said "Let me guess, you never went to Homecoming, did you?"

Nope, he never went. He didn't spend much time doing "school activities" back then, he was on his own by the time he was 15, and was usually too busy working to pay bills to mess with that kind of stuff.

But that's not what bothered me about the whole conversation, it was the fact that he had NO CLUE what a Homecoming mum was.

So, I began to wonder - is this a Southern thing? a Texas thing? Budman's argument that they don't have a lot of fresh flowers in Arizona doesn't fly with me - we rarely used real mums anyway.

I clearly remember going to Michael's to pick out supplies to make a garter for whichever boy had asked me out for Homecoming that year.

mums, ribbons, lettering, bells, trinkets....

There's a tradition - you wear your Mum to school the day of Homecoming, and your friends choose a ribbon, and tie a one-handed knot in it. I can't find a reference to this online ANYWHERE, and I had almost forgotten about it.

I did some quick Googling, and most of the links that pulled up were for places in Texas. Hmmm... Even Wikipedia has only the smallest mention of Mums:

"At many high schools, especially in the southern United States, homecoming dates exchange "mums" on Homecoming Friday, to wear to the game and the dance. These are very elaborate corsages (for the girls) or garters (for the boys, worn on the arm) that consist of a large flower (usually a chrysanthemum) surrounded by a ribbon ruffle. Long ribbons, decorations and trinkets are hung from the mum which indicate the students' date of birth, name, class, interests, and messages towards other people."
So, I'm wondering:

Doesn't everyone do Homecoming Mums?

Is it just something we do here in Texas?

Is it really that big a deal that Budman hasn't heard of this? Since he's a guy, it's probably not as big a deal.

Did you have mums when you were in High school?

Were they made with real flowers or were they homemade?

I must know all about it.

----Wishing I had a scanner, because I KNOW I have a picture of at least ONE of the four mums I was given back then.----

**This year, Possum is not participating in Homecoming - at least he hasn't asked a girl to go with him or anything... Good thing I discovered Budman was clueless about this - I can pick up the slack whenever the time comes.

12 comments:

Rachel said...

We sooo did Mums. But I'm from TX too so it doesn't count does it?

One year, I had a dolt of a date who didn't get me a mum, so all my friends took parts off theirs and created a huge mum for me. It was awesome :-)

Sorry I'm no help.

Maren said...

There were no mums in Colorado where I went to several homecomings. And no garters either. At prom there were garters...but still no mums. Go Texas! Way to be original, it sounds like a fun tradition:)

Melody said...

It isn't a Utah thing.

Anonymous said...

I'm told it's only a Texas thing. My bff in high school was the homecoming queen & her yankee relatives gave her HELL for both the title and the huge mum.

Wineplz said...

Grew up in Chicago, went to college in Indiana, and live in the DC-area...no mums in IL, IN, VA, DC, or MD...not even in southern VA.

For Homecoming the girls got corsages or small bouquets from their dates (depending on their relationship) and the guys got boutonnieres...all of this was for the dance...not during the week.

Dakotapam said...

No Mums, and I attended homecoming in California and Michigan. I do know that the two states celebrated very differently. In CA we wore cocktail dresses, in Michigan the girls still wore big hoop skirt (think gone with the wind). I never could do the hoop skirt thing, so I just was different, and that is OK.

for a different kind of girl said...

I vaguely remember the mums tradition when I was in high school in Iowa, but I don't recall there being much wiht the garter tradition. Of course, we also did homecoming dances in the school gym and just wore nice clothes. I'm so out of touch now with the 'mini prom' homecoming has turned into now! I am sure there are corsarges and such bought, but they're probably not mums.

Anonymous said...

Never ever heard of it! Girls get corsages, and boys sometimes get a boutonniere, but nothing like the picture.

Manic Mommy said...

Nothing like that here in MA.

I went to a tiny Catholic school and homecoming was barely a blip on the radar. But I've never heard of it in any local schools either.

Colleen - Mommy Always Wins said...

Nope, we don't do anything like that in WI. Guy buys the girl a coursage and girl gives guy her garter. (But I *did* write a Funny post showing pics of my hubby and I at homecoming. In 1992.)

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of this and I went to high school in Ohio.

Roger Miller said...

I never went to Homecoming, but I'm sure I would have noticed the Mums. I don't even remember them when I lived in Texas for a couple of years. Granted that was for seventh and eighth grade.

So you can knock Colorado and Illinois off of that list, at least northern Illinois. Not familiar with our southern Illinoisans. :)