"Mums" the word

It was homecoming "weekend" Oct.9- 10. Evan, a month or so ago, asked if he may go to the homecoming events planned. We asked who he would like to ask and with that we said "yes". This being our first homecoming event, let alone our first homecoming event in Texas, we discovered we had A LOT to learn. A week and half before the event a friend asked me if we were ready for that weekend. "Ready?, ready for what?" Ready to open our wallet I suppose. Come to find out, the tradition for Texas is not only paying for the basics, but one must buy a "mum" for their date. A "MUM". What is that and how do we get one? After the friend explained all the details, we just had to laugh at all that we learned and needed to learn. The boys buy a mum and the girls by a boy a garter. The girls wear their mums all day Friday at school and the boys wear their garters on their arms all day Friday. Some of these mums are "bulky" and heavy. But they wear these with pride. The girls who did not get asked make their own mums. Notice the pictures. Mums can run from basic $30 or so, to extreme over $300. We went with the $60 mum, which I think honored his friend well. Evan did come to us humbly to ask if we could help pay for the weekend. Dinner( $20 at a friend's house), dance tickets, mum, pictures, clothes (the theme was black and white). We did help. Click on the pictures to study the details of the mum and garter.