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Homecoming mums - do you know what I am talking about?


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Grew up in the Dallas area (graduated in '91), and we wore them....the bigger the better! I had a picture from high school homecoming with me at college, and my roommates (from OK, KS, and CO) all said, "What's that thing on your dress?" I was dumbfounded that they had never seen a mum before :tongue_smilie:

 

I live in the Houston area now, and mums are still worn today.

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Ds's school is having its basketball homecoming tomorrow night. We had parent/teacher conferences today, and I stopped by the GC's office to ask her if she was going to the game tomorrow night. I jokingly asked her if she was going to wear a big ol' mum. She had NO IDEA what I was talking about!!! I explained that these were really worn for football homecoming, but it wasn't registering at all. She had never heard of such a thing. So, I explained that for football homecoming girls wore corsages made out of these giant (like as big as your head) mums with pipe cleaners on them with the school's letters - "PHS." Come to think of it, I have NO idea how those pipe cleaners were affixed. Anyway, they also had gobs of ribbons hanging down from them with little football charms tied on the ends. She finally said, "Is this a Southern thing?" She grew up in California. I told her I had never really thought about it. So, I'm wondering if it is/was just a Southern thing.

 

I came home and googled "homecoming mum images" and sent her some pics so now she is properly "edumacated" about homecoming mums.

 

So, what I want to know is - have you ever heard of this before? Are you Southern? Do they have homecoming mums in the north? Did you ever wear one of these giant mums? Do florists in your town still make them?

 

I wish I was smart enough to attach an image, but I am a techno-idiot.

 

OK, I'm late, maybe. I thought you were using mums in the title as moms to someone from Britain.

 

Now that I've read what you wrote - I know exactly what you are talking about! Down to the PHS for my high school too. :) Every year at homecoming. Someone at school sold them. Ours were yellow - I guess they were supposed to be gold for school colors - maroon and gold. But I don't remember the charms.

 

Oh and I never got one being in the band and all. Raised in Virginia.

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I have never lived or gone to school anywhere but California and until today I have never seen anything like these.

 

It looks like a giant paper plate with all kinds of stuff stuck to it. Were you supposed to wear it on your homecoming dress? What is the purpose of getting a nice homecoming outfit if you are going to cover it with something like that?

 

At our formals your date bought you a wrist corsage and you got him a matching boutonniere. I think the wrist corsage came into vogue when parents got tired of watching their daughter's date fishing around in her bodice to pin on the corsage.

 

Although maybe the homecoming mum gene is latent in me because I thought the boutonniere the florist made for my dds first formal was too plain (single red rose, nothing else) so I added some gold ribbon to match her gold shoes and a tiny tie tac pin that meant something to the both of them.

 

Amber in SJ

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Grew up & graduated from high school in CA (1987).

 

I've never heard of the custom, and honestly, looking at the pictures, cannot imagine *why* anyone would spend money on something like that. :001_huh:

 

I'd rank those right up with the crocheted toilet tissue cozies. I never understood the appeal of those, either! :D

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Ds's math/science charter doesn't have a football team, so they are doing homecoming in conjunction with a b-ball game. However, most schools here do homecoming for football and "colors day" for basketball. There is a colors day queen just like there is a homecoming queen.

 

We did have Color Day, but I don't *think* it was associated with basketball (at least not anymore in the mid-90's, although I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it started that way) . I hadn't ever heard of other schools doing it, so I just assumed it was a tradition unique to our school. It's interesting to find out now that it wasn't! I wonder if they're still doing it. It seemed like it was on the way out by the time I graduated in '95.

 

And there were no mums for Color Day either.:D

Edited by Kirch
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  • 8 months later...
Guest kraftykwilts

duh got this one wrong too! won't let me delete

Edited by kraftykwilts
I edited this several times and it didn't take
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Guest kraftykwilts
Ds's school is having its basketball homecoming tomorrow night. We had parent/teacher conferences today, and I stopped by the GC's office to ask her if she was going to the game tomorrow night. I jokingly asked her if she was going to wear a big ol' mum. She had NO IDEA what I was talking about!!! I explained that these were really worn for football homecoming, but it wasn't registering at all. She had never heard of such a thing. So, I explained that for football homecoming girls wore corsages made out of these giant (like as big as your head) mums with pipe cleaners on them with the school's letters - "PHS." Come to think of it, I have NO idea how those pipe cleaners were affixed. Anyway, they also had gobs of ribbons hanging down from them with little football charms tied on the ends. She finally said, "Is this a Southern thing?" She grew up in California. I told her I had never really thought about it. So, I'm wondering if it is/was just a Southern thing.

 

I came home and googled "homecoming mum images" and sent her some pics so now she is properly "edumacated" about homecoming mums.

 

So, what I want to know is - have you ever heard of this before? Are you Southern? Do they have homecoming mums in the north? Did you ever wear one of these giant mums? Do florists in your town still make them?

 

I wish I was smart enough to attach an image, but I am a techno-idiot.

I was searching Mums due to my crafts that I am working on and came across this forum. Mums are alive and well in this day and age at least in Texas. My daughter could not afford one when she went to homecoming and her boyfriend at the time made hers from duct tape. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. We called it the Red Neck Mum. She was very proud of it and still has it to this day. I did not make them this year but will be making Mums that are affordable for girls for next year.

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I'm from Michigan and had never heard of them but now I live in Texas and they are a big thing here. During late August and all of fall (until homecoming) craft stores have whole sections dedicated to mum making. The first time I went to Michaels after we moved to Texas I thought I was in the twilight zone. I had no idea what was going on but that section was full of people looking at all these bizarre things! Now I know...still strange to me!

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My date gave me one my junior year in the mid-90's (in the midwest). I'm a thin person and this mum (with the school letters) was so BIG, there is no way I could wear it. My friends were making fun of its size and I was embarrassed, so I kept it in the box. :( I felt bad not wearing it but it seriously would have taken up over half my chest. Too bad to because it was the first flower I had ever received from a guy.

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I was born and raised in Texas. My sophomore year, my date got me a gigantic mum that covered my whole chest. There was a loop of thick ribbon that I had to slip around my neck to hold the thing up. I remember being slightly embarrassed wearing it, even though other girls had massive ones like mine. I was even more embarrassed by the puny boutineer I got my date. The next year I got a more traditional size, and my senior year, I asked my date not to get me one. He had roses delivered to the school instead. I know they still sell the mums and supplies here at the local stores. When we lived in Austin last decade, I didn't see any mums around homecoming time. I'm not sure why.

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Born and raised midwesterner, never heard of them before.

 

 

 

Nope, you're not the only one. :tongue_smilie:

 

I am from Texas so yes, they are a part of our football tradition. Some can be completely over the top but most of us made our own and it was a fun girly bonding time that resulted in harmless school spirit. Our school had sort of unspoken rules about the mum. You were allowed one flower for each year level in high school. Jr High wore one flower and were only supposed to wear blue and white while high school wore blue and gold (our colors were all three). It was harmless and a lot of fun :)

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I'm from TX and have a younger sister still in school and as far as I know, they still wear mums to homecoming. I know that my other sister did and she is 21, so this was just a few years ago.

 

ETA: As far as I know, the mums are NOT worn to the homecoming dance. They are worn throughout the day, and to the football game. I could be wrong about this though- I didn't go to public school.

Edited by Mimm
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