Homecoming in Texas. We all know what that means, mums! Actually, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about unless you've lived here. Mums are not a "thing" anything else in the country that I'm aware of. How did this tradition start? It started in Missouri in 1911 during the first ever 'homecoming' game. The first mum was spotted in Texas in the 1930's and starting in the 1970's, they started growing bigger and bigger. How does the tradition work? If a boy invites a girl to homecoming, he gives her a mum. There are ribbons depicting the couples names, school, interests, etc. The girl (or her mom, or in concert w her mother) make the boy a smaller 'garter' mum that is worn on the arm. If the girl doesn't have a date, she makes her own mum. Crazy right? Definitely weird but you just have to go with it! Most people make them but some crafty people take orders starting in June and make good money making them for people.
Arturo, a freshman on the swim team who Julia is friends with, invited her to homecoming. I thought I was off the hook for making her mum, success! Until I found out about the garter mum. Before looking at pictures, I was imaging the garter mum as a hair scrunchie with a small flower on it. Nope! Several weeks ago, Jayme (Arturo's mom) invited me over to get a sneak peak of Julia's mum and offered me ribbon in case I wanted to match them. I walked into her dining room and was so shocked at the size of Julia's mum and overwhelmed by the ribbon everywhere, I was almost paralyzed. She had 2 garter mum's a mom friend had lent her and I borrowed those to use as a reference.
A week later, I headed out with the girls on the search for ribbons. It turns out, when your homecoming is one of the later ones in the district, there isn't much selection. After hitting up 2 different Michaels and 2 different Hobby Lobby's, I finally found what I needed!
Tammy had just made Hannah's mum for her homecoming a week earlier so she offered to help me. I went to her house and were making that sucker until midnight. We were laughing "If someone had told us 20 years ago we'd be up for hours cutting ribbon, gluing letters and stapling a mum together, we'd tell them they were crazy!" But we had fun making it.
Mum exchange! You are probably thinking-what do they do with these things? They exchange them and wear them to school the day of the homecoming game and then wear them to the football game. Arturo came over to do the mum exchange and they both loved it!
Crazy tradition but I will definitely be more prepared next year! And if you see any unique navy, blues or red ribbons, mail them to me!
5.30am drop off..with a giant mum
Swim girls Ava, Julia & Annika, with their mums
Oh..and the mums get bigger and bigger as they get older. Here are a few seniors:
1 comment:
Good grief! them some big Mum's!
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