Mums through the ages; quick look back at earlier CHS mums, traditions

October 23, 2014

Photo courtesy of Terry Phillips

Video by Jordan Logan.

Gabby Sahm

staff writer

@yoitsgoobs

Today, when you look at mums we see fake flowers, layers upon layers of ribbons, bells, whistles, lights and let’s not forget the outrageous size of them. It seems mums are only growing bigger each year, but what if you were to take a look back at mums from 1970s-1990s?

Well, you would see quite a difference.

Mums back then were drastically different than what they are now. They had one real flower, an chrysanthemum, with some ribbons attached, some bells and the name of you and your date. The colors of the mums were only red and white, seeing as black was not apart of Coppell High School’s colors. Also, instead of having it tied around your neck, you simply had it pinned to your lapel.

Coppell High School principals secretary Terry Phillips, 1978 CHS graduate, recalls some of the procedures that guys would have to go through in order to make their mum the best it could be.

“You had to keep them refrigerated prior to wearing them, or they would wilt,” Phillips said. “If you wanted to keep all your mums from all four years, you had to freeze them.”

The traditional all white mum for seniors was not apart of the high school mum tradition. In fact, garters for boys were not apart of the homecoming tradition either. Both of the traditions come many years later.

Something else that has also changed is the pricing. Instead of it costing $25-30, it can now cost anywhere between $95 for a first year mum and $185 for a senior mum according to Beth Scheetz, Varsity Mum’s owner.

She started her mum shop four years ago when she had to help her son make his own mum. The shop has been open for three years now, and sees anywhere from 100 to 150 customers a year.

“I grew up in Texas, but later moved up north, so I got a little taste of both versions of the mum,” Scheetz said. “The size in Texas was much larger.”

CHS junior Ari Randall has always enjoyed making a mum for her date. She thinks mums can be a little big and overdone, but she likes that they follow a tradition and i happy she can be apart of it. Compared to other students, Randall hates the pressure that comes from the mums, rather than the actually bells and whistles on them.

“When one student has a mum and another doesn’t, it automatically labels them as this student has a date and this one doesn’t, and that’s where the social pressure comes in,” Randall said.

In the end, no matter if you use real flowers with some ribbons, or fake ones and seven layers of ribbons, mum can be a fun way to show someone you care about them. Robyn Wise, 1999 CHS graduate, helps give some advice to those few people who do not receive a mum and how it does not define if you have a good time or not.

“They are kind of a first world problem, it does not matter if you have one or not,” Wise said. “It’s about celebrating and being with your friends.”