given on August 9, 2024 by Amy J. Schultz, photographer and author of Mumentous

Mayor, City Council, and esteemed guests… It’s football season! Or, as the mum-makers in the room know, that’s just a less-blingy way of saying… It’s mum season!

Only a few years ago, I was just a regular old Texas transplant who thought a homecoming mum was just a regular old chrysanthemum corsage.

That all changed when my camera and I joined a friend and her booster club in making mums to sell in support of their kids’ high school marching band. I never imagined that the photos I shot that day of women making mums would grow into a full-scale exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art, grow further into my book Mumentous, and grow further still into a partnership with the Texas Lakes Trail Region, which produced the Mumentous exhibit panels you see here today.

I guess I should have known that anything having to do with homecoming mums just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger…

You all have definitely proven that Everything’s Bigger and Better in Garland. Your adaptation of the Mumentous exhibit is amazing! I must say a special thank you to Kimberly Nurmi, who believed that this exhibition and Garland were a match made in heaven. And boy was she right. And I just want to be clear… the exhibit that travels are the 40 panels with the red and blue captions and black and white photographs. EVERYTHING ELSE you see here was curated by Kim, her team, and their colleagues with the City and Visit Garland, meaning that EVERYTHING — from the mums to the uniforms to the memorabilia to the gigantic mum in the lobby — came from your friends and neighbors. What a celebration of Garland and your amazing community!

I’d also like to thank UT Arlington Libraries Special Collections, which contributed to the images you see in the traveling exhibit panels; and Jill Campbell Jordan. Sadly, Jill is attending a visitation for a family friend tonight, so she can’t be here. But I want to acknowledge that she and the the Lakes Trail Region of the Texas Historical Commission made the Mumentous traveling exhibit possible. They immediately recognized how homecoming mums are part of our state’s unique cultural heritage … and that Mumentous was a worthy platform to present that history.

As Texans, we understand that “Everything’s bigger in Texas” is both a point of pride and a call to action. That’s exactly what has been happening with homecoming mums in Texas over the last 110 years or so. There are lots of reasons why, which I detail in my book, but today I’d like us to focus on the most influential.

Texas women.

Let me tell you a few things about Texas women… not because I am one, but because of what I heard over and over as I conducted my Mumentous research and collected hundreds of oral histories:   

• First… If there’s a milestone in a teenager’s life – like his or her senior year – a Texas mom (or another family matriarch) will make sure it’s commemorated. Today’s mums commemorate milestones, especially senior mums, because of how substantial they can be. Because they are made of artificial flowers, mums can also be keepsakes, which give them more value because they can be displayed and cherished well beyond the day they’re worn.

• Second… If there’s an opportunity for a teenager to participate in a community tradition, particularly if it’s related to something going on at school, a Texas mom is going to do her utmost to help make that happen. Homecoming mums today are a way for students to participate in the life of their school and traditions of their local community.

• Third… If there’s an opportunity to celebrate what makes a teenager unique, a Texas mom is going to do that with gusto. Today’s mums can be highly customized for the girl or boy who is wearing it, making them a vehicle for expressing self-identity.

In these three ways and simply put, homecoming mums offer Texas moms a tangible act of love. And by helping her kid take part in the homecoming mum tradition, every Texas mom has contributed to the tradition’s evolution.

But before you assume this is the entire story, let’s look at some hard numbers. This will help us grasp the scale of the homecoming mum phenomenon in Texas and how women are absolutely driving it.

Let’s start with the supply side.

How many of you know someone who makes homecoming mums to sell? There are a number of mum makers here today! I’ve done the math, and there are minimally – minimally - 6,000 small business in Texas, almost all run by women, that make and sell homecoming mums in their communities.

Most of them purchase their supplies from wholesalers or distributors, most of which are family businesses with at least one woman at the helm. There’s a professional organization of mum makers called Mums Inc. who negotiate and buy directly from manufacturers. They also support each other with creative and professional development activities year-round. All but five of their members are women.

But wait! There’s more.

• As I mentioned, high school organizations and booster clubs sell mums as fundraisers, and most of these mums are made by women.

• Employees of grocery stores, craft stores, and mum retail shops – again, mostly women – spend weeks and months creating pre-made mums to sell during homecoming season.

• Then there’s the Do It Yourself-ers. Literally countless Texas moms, some dads, daughters, and sons are figuring out how to light up a glue gun and DIY their own mums and garters, either to exchange with dates or friends or wear themselves.

People. This is a BIG supply chain.

Now let me razzle-dazzle you with a final set of numbers from the demand side.

There are well over 3 million kids attending high schools in Texas that host some kind of homecoming celebration. Now let’s say 25% of those students make, buy, or are gifted one homecoming mum in any given year. That’s just over 781,000 students. We can assume about half of those students are seniors, because seniors are at least twice as likely to wear a mum than the underclassmen, because if ever there was a milestone year it’s the senior year, not to mention when you’re a senior, it’s your last chance to ever have a mum. Since senior mums are the biggest and most intricate of them all, let’s assign them an average cost of $300… which for some communities is too high and for other communities is too low. And for most schools in DFW, that’s too low.

Multiply it out, and you get $117,150,000 dollars spent EVERY YEAR… JUST on senior mums, and JUST in Texas (because, oh yeah, Texas-style homecoming mums are spreading like kudzu into neighboring states). And this is a VERY conservative estimate. I mean, if this doesn’t make TAB (Texas Association of Business, aka the Texas Chamber) perk up, I don’t know what will.

But here’s the thing. Above all, a homecoming mum is FUN. I’ve seen kids wearing mums so gigantic that can barely fit inside their cars, and I’ve seen kids wearing mums so small that they fit on their ring finger. What do they have in common? Fun! So when I was shooting photos for Mumentous, I just had to try one on and see what all the fuss was about. I approached a girl wearing a large senior mum to her homecoming football game, and she let me give it a go. Here’s an excerpt from what I wrote about my experience:

…To say that Texas high school homecoming mums are super-sized would be a pitiful understatement. A mum precedes you with the power of a juicy rumor…

The mum landed, and I took an involuntary step to steady myself. When you’re enveloped in a mum of this size, there’s no direction to go but forward…. As I swept by the fans sitting in the bleachers nearby, I felt like the homecoming queen and her parade float combined.

Even though my body was barely visible, there was nothing about me that felt hidden. I was outrageously conspicuous and totally emboldened.

The senior started to get antsy, so I returned her mum to its rightful perch on her body. Instantly, I lost twenty pounds. My skin welcomed back the light evening breeze.

As the senior and her friends walked away, laughing hysterically, I noticed how the bells woven into their mums made a collective sound that was completely unlike any other in the stadium. Given the ambient decibel level, that was something. The mums defied them all.

They were outrageously conspicuous and totally emboldened, just like a teenager making a big noise in our big, noisy world.

Through Mumentous, I came to learn that the history and heritage of Texas homecoming mums is way more than the sum of its parts, just like any great story or tradition or family or community. I imagine you would say the same about Garland. How fortunate you are, Mayor and Council, to have so many wonderful women and men who have pride in their city and so willingly share their joy, talent and enthusiasm with their city.

Happy mum season, y’all! And thank you.

Garland Exhibit & Program Info

Visit visitgarlandtx.com/events/2024/mumentous for complete information, directions, and more

MUMENTOUS: Football, Glue Guns, Moms, and a Super-Sized High School Tradition

FREE EXHIBIT runs from August 10 - October 12, 2024
Garland City Hall, 200 N. 5th Street, Garland, TX 75040

Monday - Tuesday: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Wednesday - Friday: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Closed on Sundays

Step into the heart of Texas tradition with MUMENTOUS: Football, Glue Guns, Moms, and a Super-Sized High School Tradition. This captivating exhibit, hosted in partnership with the Texas Lakes Trail Region, showcases the evolution of high school homecoming mums, offering a nostalgic journey through Texan culture, the DIY movement, and the role of women as tradition-keepers. Don't miss this opportunity to reminisce and reconnect with cherished memories alongside friends and family.

FREE Homecoming Film Series

Plaza Theater, 521 W. State Street, Garland, TX 75040

American Graffiti (1973)
Thursday, August 22, 2024
7:00 p.m.

Back to the Future (1985)
Thursday, September 5, 2024
7:00 p.m.

Varsity Blues (1999)
Thursday, September 19, 2024
7:00 p.m.
On Sept. 19 from 6-7pm, Amy Schultz will at the theater, selling and signing her book Mumentous.

Special Exhibition Events

Visit visitgarlandtx.com/events/2024/mumentous for complete information, directions, tickets, and more

Your Grandmother's Mum* - $5 per person (please purchase tickets in advance)
Saturday, August 17
3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Build Your Mum* - $50 per person (please purchase tickets in advance)
Sundays, August 18, September 8, and September 22
2 p.m. - 6 p.m.

FREE Homecoming Mum Masterclass
Saturday, August 24
11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Amy J. Schultz Book Signing
Saturday, August 31 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
and Saturday, September 14 from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.

FREE Author Talk: “All the Bells and Whistles” with Amy J. Schultz
Saturday, September 7
1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Decorate Your Mum* - $50 per person (please purchase tickets in advance)
Thursdays, September 12 and September 26
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Garter Clinic* - $20 per person (please purchase tickets in advance)
Saturday, September 21
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Meet Mums, Inc.
Saturday, October 5
2 p.m.