I can’t believe summer break was two months ago now; it feels like yesterday to me. I swear I don’t know where vacation went or how it’s fall already, and we’re about to mail out our first progress reports at school and homecoming is around the corner. Speaking of homecoming, is this just a Texas thing?
When mums attack
These will be swarming the scene at every grocery store in the state from now until the last Homecoming game is played. At school, some of the girls’ mums are so huge they have to attach a strap and wear them around their necks to keep them on.
Another thing that’s new to me, but not to the students: gone are the days when a guy just walked up to a girl and asked her to the game (or prom). Nowadays, it has to be a huge production worthy of ending up a viral video. Signs have to be made. Dance steps must be memorized. Flower petals and confetti must be flung. And the bigger the audience for all this tomfoolery, the better. What gives?
I blame YouTube. Seems nothing is worth doing anymore unless it garners the approval of a large crowd of anonymous people. Same with wedding proposals. Now the poor guy has to go all out and perform a choreographed lipsynch in front of a huge crowd or the gal feels ripped off. I hate to say it, but thank God I’m not a young-un in the midst of all of this. I am so practical and un-romantic, I would have run screaming from any marriage proposal that involved what, to me, would feel like both public pressure and public humiliation. I don’t even recall that Doug and I had a formal proposal. It was more like – hey, we’re a good fit, we should get married someday. Yep. We should probably buy an engagement ring to make that official. Yep. Shall we go to Zales and pick something out? OK. Poof! Engaged.
But that’s just me. And by the way, I never went to Homecoming in high school, not once. Never got asked and never cared, as I hated the thought of wearing a mum (which back in the 80’s was a lot smaller) and I hated football games too. Still do, but I’ll probably go to the one at the school out of a sense of duty anyway.
This whole post was an excuse to share that photo, which cracked me up when I saw it at the grocery store Saturday. You’re welcome.
mareymercy. 
I’ve never personally seen those things. And I am not plugged in to the high school crowd and their practices these days. I have a bunch of nieces and nephews still of that age but somehow never talk to them about things like that. I also didn’t go to any of those dances at all because the group I hung out with was the art and brains crowd, and the kids that cared about those production dances were the cheerleaders/football crowd. I went to a huge high school so we could be doing separate things and no one even noticed we were gone. But those mum things are not in California grocery stores. At first I thought it was something at your MIL’s house but couldn’t imagine that fitting in with her decor. I think that says more about my sleep-deprived mind this morning than anything else, lol.
The huge production that must be made just to ask someone to homecoming has sprung up over the last ten years or so, I think. It still freaks me out, but it’s along the lines of how big birthdays and graduations have become now. Often I will see mothers up here helping their sons create this big event to ask a girl to prom or whatever – it’s bizarre to me. Just search for “asking to homecoming” on YouTube and you’ll see what I mean. It’s an epidemic!
And of course football is an epidemic here in Texas also – it’s like a religion. So Homecoming is a HUMONGOUS deal.
I had never seen those either. My daughter just graduated high school last year. So I am up-to-date about the elaborateness of anything like proms, homecomings, etc. She even wondered why my husband had not gotten down on one knee to propose to me?
Really – so mums are more regional than I thought, it seems? They hang all sorts of stuff from those ribbons – cowbells, little teddy bears, little bottles of bubbles. It’s insane. They cost anywhere from $85 to $200!
Amazing. Yes probably regional. But the extravagance is the same. The over-the-top-ness we never had!
Cute 😛
Cute but insane!
Yes lol
I’ve never seen these Pom Pom ribbons before. I loved your ghoul photos 🙂
They’re huge! They take up a girl’s entire chest basically, LOL.
And can all the girls “afford” this stuff at no penalty ? Very regional. Very strange.
It is stranger than I thought, apparently! Lol
It’s a Texas thing. I have a Texas friend who is obsessed with the whole mum history. My husband collected vintage soda signs and other advertising goodies, and he has a sign where the girl is wearing the big texas mum. And I mean big.
Yes – they will literally cover a girl’s entire torso! And they have cowbells and whistles and horns attached so it’s noisy as hell all day when they wear them to school. Girls are tripping over the ribbons and everything.
I learn something new everyday…which for me is very easy. Didn’t know about the “Mum” thing, except of course in England where it has a different meaning.
Making a big deal out of asking someone to the prom, homecoming, a date or even a marriage proposal has its pro’s and con’s. We’ll leave marriage out, but making a big deal out of a date, I think is flattering.
Much better that the “Rocky” technique of “Hey…you want to go to a movie, or what.”
Anyway, in today’s day and age where everything winds up on Facebook and most of it is negative or just plain bitching, something nice could be refreshing. I guess. 🙂
True – I guess in light of all the awful things that go on nowadays, making a big deal out of asking a girl on a date is actually sweet. Didn’t think of it that way!