Letter #282 -- Corsages

We recently had Homecoming in our small town. Homecoming (for anyone who isn't familiar with the term) is an event tied to a high school football game (at least around here it's football). Graduates of the high school come back "home" for the game. In our town, the high school students elect a Homecoming Queen and King. In some other towns, they also elect a "Coming Home Queen and King" from the alumni.

One of the things that makes Homecoming different from all the other football games is that the girls wear Homecoming mums, large flower corsages, decorated with ribbons, trinkets, etc. If you're not familiar with this concept, type "Homecoming mums" into Google Images and see lots of pictures. Typically, boyfriends give the Homecoming mums to their girlfriends, but many parents, grandparents and "just friends" give mums to girls. And, in return, the girls often give Homecoming "garters" to the boys. Those are decorated flowers on arm bands that the boys wear.

Now, back in the "old" days (the 1980s, I know), girls wore real flowers, chrysanthemums, elaborately decorated. Nowadays, the flowers are artificial (silk) so that they can better withstand all of the stuff that is attached to them. The pictures that you see online are often the extreme, and around here most of the girls attach the mum to one shoulder or the other and do not wear them around their neck like gigantic necklaces.

This year, my daughter is in the fifth grade and still a little too young for a Homecoming date. Yet, she wanted a Homecoming mum. I wasn't about to pay up to $100 for a mum (I'm not kidding....many people pay that much and more), so we bought a basic, undecorated mum and some ribbon and trinkets and made one by ourselves for much less.

From what I understand, back in the really olden days (the 1960s, for example, when I was a little girl), girls often wore much smaller mums or corsages to many football games, not just the Homecoming game. I hope they cost a lot less back then!

Have you ever heard of such a tradition? Have you ever received a Homecoming mum or a corsage for a sporting event? If so, write a letter about it today. If not, is there anything similar where you live? Write a letter about your traditions!