I love, love, love having lunch with Sarah in Bryant Park.
“I think this is getting serious,” she said as we settled in at our green metal table. “It’s our third lunch date in a week.”
“Oooh, you’re right. Does that mean we’re going steady?”
“Yep. I think I should be wearing your ring.”
I almost got nervous about having a committed lunch relationship, but then she produced the chocolate cookie she brought me and promised to decorate my locker with a banner for homecoming. And in the fine, Texas high school tradition, I will make Sarah a mum.
I just hope when I send her an IM tomorrow and say, “Lunch today?” she doesn’t reply, “I think I need my space.”
Because, that’d be a lot of wasted effort on the mum**.
**This is a homecoming mum. It’s actually a girl wearing a mum, but you can’t really see her under all the festivities. If you don’t get it, what can I say? Neither do I.
Do you exchange sandwiches too??
Excuse me… “A mum”? In my vernacular that implies you’ll be getting Sarah “with child”. Assuming that’s not your intention, please explain.
Promise me you won’t drop me for an ugly girl named Meagan? Because I get that more than I care to admit.
I had almost erased that Texas high school tradition from my brain. All that therapy down the drain. only kiddin
mkancaskmn sd fdsf OMG MUMS.
mum is the word.
How do you people NOT know what a mum is.
And your example? It’s a medium-size one.
I’ve seen bigger. I have friends who spend hundreds on ribbons and trinkets and christmas lights with which to adorn mums.
I don’t get it.
Do girls wear mums or carry them?
Bizarre.
Sad to say, I’ve not only seen bigger, I’ve worn bigger. More than once. I am no longer that girl, thank God…
OMG, I looked at your example ‘mum’ and thought the ribbons were rolls of condoms!
OMG! I hadn’t thought about mums in over 20 years. The last time that I – another former Texas high school girl – wore one was in, um, 1978. They were smaller then (even the triples), and weren’t trip hazards… but they were more garish when dyed to match school colors. And they had these little clanking cowbells tied onto the ends of the ribbons…
o, i am so confused…
For all those still confused: Mums are typically wore on the day of the homecoming game at high school, then taken to the game afterwards. They consist of a horrific combo of ribbons, bells, lace, and whatever else you can manage to get hot glued to it. At my school, under classmen wore mums with the school colors (blue and white in my case) and seniors wore white and silver. Usually you get one from your parents, and one from your boyfriend. I have to say, I’m still a little bitter about never having one. If my boyfriend would have gotten me one it would have just been made of condoms and zigzags anyways, and there was “no way my dad was going to spend 100 bucks on a bunch of f*ing ribbons”.
Mine’s still hanging up on a bisous memorial bulletin board at my parent’s house in Texas. Sigh.
Mums! I’d forgotten about those (ours were maroon, one of our school colors.) Was this only a Texas thing? I thought everybody did this.
Do you wear it on your head? Around your neck? Like a tail? Were you a huge, unpopular geek if you didn’t have one?
You wore it like a corsage… sorta. you know, with steel girders to hold it in place.
And no, not a huge geek… it just meant that your boyfriend couldn’t talk his mother into making you one.
OR, and this was my situation, you’d rather light yourself on FIRE than wear one of those to a football game.
Yes you were a huge unpopular geek nerdy butt head, if you didn’t get one! If you already were a huge upopular geek nerdy butt head that did get one it was usually from your mommy, because your geek nerdy boyfriend had his head stuck in a book and wouldn’t have dared to upset the football gods by getting you one.
OMG! I haven’t seen one of those huge things since I was in the 8th grade. Thanks for the walk down memory lane, Fish.
For whatever reason, as I remember it the mum became hugely unpopular in high school and was replaced by the “roadie” come freshman year.
By the way, “Varsity Blues” wasn’t that far off the mark. Texas high school football = freaking scary cultural event for the uninitiated.
It wasn’t just a Texas thing. We had them in TN, too, but not that big. The longest I can remember the ribbons being were to the knees. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
OMG. OMG! OMG? OMG!? OMG!! OMG?? OMG!!!!!!!1
i just had to, i’m sorry.
As a texan transplanted to northern virginia, I appreciate someone being able to explain and show off this bizarre tradition. No one ever believes me up here! way to represent!
At my high school, your mum consisted of one blossom for each year of high school. By the time you were a senior, you had a monstrous creation that covered your entire chest. Therefore, the over the shoulder mum was born. A satin banner connected the two blooms in the front to the two in the back. The whole thing was then adorned with the entire craft section from Hobby Lobby; small teddy bears glued to the center of the mums were quite popular. An alternative to the mum was also becoming popular: The Homecoming garter. Yes, those were also adorned with a disproportionate number of decorations. Usually, the “loose” girls wore these, because you couldn’t wear them under clothes of appropriate length without looking like you had a strange growth on your leg.
Every time I think Texas is weird, it just keeps getting WEIRDER. You do realize that most of the free world has never ever ever heard of this?
God they’re hideous.