Mums the Word

My sister, Laurann, came to visit for the weekend.We enjoyed having her here.

We took her to the Homecoming football game for the boy's high school. We really didn't go to see the football game but rather we went to see the spectacle called Texas High School Football. Homecoming is an even bigger spectacle. The varsity game is played in Pizza Hut Park, home of  FC Dallas, the local Major League Soccer team.

The stadium wasn't full but it was still fun to watch them play under the lights and with the jumbo-tron.

The team went out on the field in style both at the beginning of the game and at halftime.

There is the drill team,

the dance team,

the cheerleaders,

 (No photo. Nothing against the cheerleaders, I just put my camera down without thinking.)

the marching band,

the Homecoming King and Queen (Julia is a girl from church so we were happy that she was representing.)

but the biggest thing about Homecoming is the mums.

Mums?

Back in the 60's the boys in Texas started the tradition of giving a mum corsage to their date for Homecoming. What started out as a simple corsage turned into this....

Yep, as with most things in Texas....go big or go home. Most mums include all the bells and whistles (literally), stuffed animals, lights, music, their name, class, and other trinkets representing what activities they participate in.

Here is how it works. A boy asks a girl to the homecoming dance. They each buy a mum for their date ranging in price from $100-$200. The night before the football game they have an exchange party where they present each other with their mum. They wear their mum to school the next day and to the football game. Some teachers specifically plan their lessons on Homecoming day to lessen the amount of movement the students have to make in the classroom. You can see why.

The boy's mum is attached to a garter around their arm with ribbons and such hanging down. Most girls need to wear their mum around their neck because if they wear this "corsage" pinned to their shirt they might just have a wardrobe malfunction.

My sweet neighbor was kind enough to model her mum for me.

There were girls at the game whose mum hung across their lap and down on the seat in front of them. Seriously. I didn't dare take a photo but I really wanted to. They say there are girls who could go to school naked and be completely covered by their mum. That really isn't an exaggeration.

The mum tradition extends down to the little ones. A neighbor showed up this week with mums for my girls. They were delighted to wear their mums to the game. Here they are modeling with the friend who brought their mums over.

My favorite mum of the night was the little boy with a Batman figure in his mum. Nice.

I know we only moved 1400 miles away but, sometimes is feels like we're in a whole other world.