The Death of the Homecoming Mum: A Wilting Tradition

Since this is my tenth year out of college (fourteenth for high school), I've been feeling all sorts of oddly nostalgic. This feeling was amped by my high school homecoming game this weekend. (In fairness, I work at the high school where I graduated from. Homecoming is kind of neat for me every year.) As many of my fellow Texans know, the most exciting part of homecoming was decorating a mum. The way it worked was a freshman, sophomore, and junior would wear mums touting the school colors (for us that's blue and white). Then once you were a senior you would don a solid white mum accented with either gold or silver. My mom created an exquisite mum my freshman year and every subsequent year simply removed faded ribbon and replaced it with new accents. Then she made a brand new one my senior year. Some of my friends would get together and make their own. Boyfriends' moms would make them for girlfriends. Girlfriends would make garter mums for boyfriends, and others simply paid professionals.

The day of the homecoming game is an experience for both students and teachers. Fortunately, I have been able to witness both sides. I remember finding that perfect balance of safety pins to stabilize the top heavy creation without it pulling down the entire front of my shirt (a thick ribbon to make a necklace or "neck brace" of sorts works well too). There was a giddy joy in perusing the isle at the "mum place" finding the right adornments each year. Of course I would also carefully plan the right outfit even thought the mum covered most of it. As a teacher, my first couple of years homecoming meant keeping a repair kit in my room with a hot glue gun, extra ribbon, and LOTS of safety pins. It also meant taping down bells whose incessant tinkling inspired a friend of mine to recite "The Bells" by Poe every year (a tradition all its own). I loved it! All of it. During the pep rallies I could look into the stands and just see smiling faces floating above a sea of flowers.

However, within the past few years there has been a great decline in annual mummery. Friday I only had seven out of my 140 students who had either a mum or a garter. This breaks my heart. Then I wondered why. After all, I didn't even know the tradition. I suppose I just always equated the mum with school pride and the disappearing mums were symbolic of that.

So I looked up the tradition of the mum and found two pretty good pieces. The first is from Garden and Design and the second is a Q and A on Ezine.

Being the goober that I am, I fell in love with the tradition even more after reading about the mum's origins. Now I really want kids to catch on at my school and start bringing it back. One of the biggest concerns is the cost. We have a large percentage on our campus of students who are at a socioeconomic disadvantage. Ignorance is also a factor to overcome. We have many Hispanic students who may be second or third generation American but whose parents didn't attend school in Texas and are unaware of the tradition.

In the end I don't really believe either of these are real obstacles. I'll be honest. I'm Mexican-American and didn't grow up with any kind of silver spoon in my mouth. If anyone knows how to create a lot from a little, I know my peeps can do it. We know how to shop the bargans and will gladly ask friends who are no longer in need of their old mums if we may borrow pieces here and there. (Two of my friends pulled out all their mums and told their younger sister to take whatever she wanted.) We can also bring in a style all our own. Does this mean mums might have a bit more hot pink and animal print then they used to? Probably, but I'll gladly adjust to that over no more mums at all. We really just need to get the word out. Maybe involve the community in donating supplies or holding raffles for pre-made mums. We could show short (and entertaining) videos during the announcements that pumps everyone up for Mum Day...I mean homecoming.

I know. I know. There are plenty of people screaming at the computer because this is a stupid thing for me to go on and on about. I realize a vast majority of students are facing no graduation because they cannot pass the STAAR exam. I realize many kids are just trying to keep their heads above water between school, a job, and younger siblings to care for. I realize teachers are being overworked in a bureaucratic system that the Vogons would envy. But for at least one day could we not get a little lost in ribbon and faux flowers and, yes, even the "bells, bells, bells..."?