Homecoming is a tradition, and like traditions, they can change throughout the years. Brenda Hoffmeister graduated from Glendora High School in 1987 and her stories of homecoming in past years show how homecoming has changed.
For instance, it is the same in that the queen from the previous year came back to crown the following year’s queen, and different in that homecoming was a dance where the girl asks the guy.
“It was girl asks boy… which was interesting because Sadie’s was the same way so, I’m not sure when the guys asked the girls to dances. I guess Prom was their big one,” Hoffmeister recalled.
Later on she began to explain how the parade hasn’t changed, with the princesses being on cars to the classes having themes; it apparently has been the same for the last couple decades. The princes being crowned at the assembly also didn't change.
However, according to Hoffmeister, the queen’s crowning was a whole different ball game; the girl who was crowned had her name written in the sky with fireworks.
“My year, the '87 homecoming queen came back in '88 and she was told a name and that’s who she crowned, but that’s not whose name came up [in fireworks],” she recalls.
It was a big deal to crown the right girl but have the wrong name go up in fireworks and to this day there is still a discrepancy of who was right and who was wrong.
As for the actual dance, the biggest change was girls asking boys. The matching tie with dress remained the same and the corsages were also a classic. Hoffmeister also mentioned that instead of receiving a corsage, occasionally girls would receive a nosegay, a small bunch of flowers like a bouquet, but smaller.
In the past 30 years, the traditions of homecoming have changed, from the queen’s reveal to switching up who asks who, lifestyles and trends change, so, in the next 30 years it could be an entirely new tradition.
