High school homecomings and other differences

So I learned something new over the last few weeks. Carmel's homecoming was two weeks ago which brought up high school homecoming traditions. Come to find out, Indiana doesn't "do" homecoming mums! Shocker, huh?! Then as I'm Googling it today to try and show some coworkers what all the mum/garter fuss is about, I slowly start to realize that all websites point to Texas! Is Texas the only state with this "spirited" tradition??? (after further thought, it is kinda an exaggerated tradition I guess) I'll have to find out more about it's history. I did have to laugh as I reminisced on the old high school homecomings and how we would actually talk about different people's mums. The conversations would go something like this, "Did you see her mum?" "Oh my gosh it was HUGE" "Tacky, huh?" Like one mum is actually tackier than another mum. Admittedly it was (and still is) a fun tradition!

All this mum business made me think I should write about all the other differences that have provided entertaining over the last several years:

• In Indiana, an ice chest is a "cooler". This is another fact I only learned two weeks ago. Daniel, of course, has tried to act like he grew up more civilized than I and says that he has ALWAYS called it a cooler and NEVER an ice chest. What?!!!
• Potluck dinner = Pitch-in in Indiana
• There has been some debate on Frito pie. We've had differing opinions on this matter. Some say they've never heard of a 'dish' like this. Others call it a 'walking taco'. While still others say it's a haystack or something like that.
• Did you know that other colleges around the country don't have hand gestures to express their loyalty (example: thumbs up at A&M, bear claw at Baylor, guns at Tech, horns at tu, etc.). Which led Daniel and I to think about this further. We think this was may be an old SWC tradition??? Anyone else have a history on this tradition? We've had some explaining to do over the last few years as to why all of our friends from Aggieland are giving a thumbs up in pictures. Then there's a whole other conversation discussing what Gig 'em means! :) This difference does explain why other colleges say "they're #1" when the cameras roll across their fans....they just don't have anything better to do with their hands!
• Ranch dressing is not the dip of choice in the Midwest. Here in the Hoosier state, nacho cheese dip is what it's all about. When you order breadsticks from a pizza joint, they come with marinara or nacho cheese sauce. Go figure! This took some getting used to, but I have to say, it's not so bad!

Well, these are just a few of the fun differences we have encountered. Usually, the joke is on us as people are trying to figure out what the heck we're talking about! How different two parts of the country can be!