TENDER AGE IN BLOOM: With Fall upon us, it's homecoming season (at least in the South), and we look at the uniquely Texan tradition of the Homecoming Mum.
When I went to high school in Texas (Abilene) the mums were real and you had one BIG one that your Homecoming date bought you. When my daughter went to high school in Texas (Austin), it was a whole new world. Fortunately her school did not do the HUGE mums but the girls would get one or two larger ones (with 3 foot streamers) from boyfriend and/or parents and then do shorter (18 inch streamers) ones for all their friends. My daughter usually made them for about 12 of her friends - and then, of course, received them from the same friends. The girls would wear vests or carry totes to hang all the mums as they would tear through a shirt. And the moms made the garter versions for the cheerleaders so they could hang them from their megaphones and not have to actually cheer a game without a mum on display. (the horror!) I say that like I wasn't one of those cheer moms hot gluing my life away for the squad... This is so ingrained in the culture that my daughter received her first mum when she was in 3rd or 4th grade and was cheering for a pee wee football team. It's insane - and fun.
Huh. I had no idea that was a Texas thing.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they covered this in Friday Night Lights....
ReplyDeleteA) fascinating, b) what the hell?
ReplyDeleteThat is fascinating. I've never seen anything like it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to high school in Texas (Abilene) the mums were real and you had one BIG one that your Homecoming date bought you. When my daughter went to high school in Texas (Austin), it was a whole new world. Fortunately her school did not do the HUGE mums but the girls would get one or two larger ones (with 3 foot streamers) from boyfriend and/or parents and then do shorter (18 inch streamers) ones for all their friends. My daughter usually made them for about 12 of her friends - and then, of course, received them from the same friends. The girls would wear vests or carry totes to hang all the mums as they would tear through a shirt. And the moms made the garter versions for the cheerleaders so they could hang them from their megaphones and not have to actually cheer a game without a mum on display. (the horror!) I say that like I wasn't one of those cheer moms hot gluing my life away for the squad... This is so ingrained in the culture that my daughter received her first mum when she was in 3rd or 4th grade and was cheering for a pee wee football team. It's insane - and fun.
ReplyDelete