THE TEXAS HOMECOMING CORSAGE-A TRADITION OF MONSTROUS PROPORTIONS
I admit I was reared in Virginia-the dominion of understated elegance, where genteel poverty is respected and admired, where less is more, as long as it is of the finest quality. Thus Texas remains a constant puzzlement and challenge for me with its predilection for statement through size-big ranches, big cars, big hair---and never more so than the week before my son's first Homecoming Dance when he announced that he needed a corsage, and memories of a sweet little mum, surrounded by delicate lace and slim ribbons, attached by a straight pin to my sweetheart bodice floated rosily and nostalgically through my mind.
Luckily for CW and me, his best friend's mother called and suggested we make the boys' corsages together- it was fun and saved a lot of money, she said. How much can a corsage cost? I asked (oh, silly me! This was Texas!). Sixty to eighty dollars, she replied and I clutched my heart in horror. How can this be! But Jane was a born and bred Dallas girl who understood the nuances of Homecoming. She realized immediately she was dealing with a novice. "I'll pick you up in half an hour," she said with authority.
We headed to MJDesigns. (How can this stock not be soaring?) And we purchased a giant fake mum, and three pieces of cardboard . "How tall is CW's date?" she asked. Odd question, but I guessed roughly 5'7". "The ribbons have to come to the knees," she informed me. We measured out enough ribbon to rewrap Boris Karloff in the Carroll High School colors, black, green and white, in three widths, plus additional curly silver streamers and special muti-colored striped ribbons, and then we got to the really exciting part: the decorative personalization, the individualized enhancing of this generic mutant mum.
First came the names cascading in shimmering letters down the wide ribbons, and then "HOMECOMING '97. Then a variety of charms and doodads were chosen, representing the school, the occasion and every important event that has ever occurred throughout the entire life of the date. Thirty-odd dollars later, we adjourned to my kitchen table with glue guns,scissors, and wine. I cannot describe the amazing techniques I learned that night---folding, stapling, gluing. When we were done with the ribbon and the wine, I had before me the Rambo of Mums, the Terminator of Homecoming Corsages. Four feet and six pounds of Flower Power- a corsage any Carroll High School female would be
proud to attach -with several 6" safety pins and maybe some rope- to her Homecoming dress. I felt a thrill as I held it aloft-out of reach of the cat, who was eyeing the ribbons covetously.
It was---Pure Texas. |
