The Whataburger Mum
Only in Texas do Whataburger and over the top mums go together.
The year was 2016, Gracie and I were in the car driving down the road solving all the world’s problems when the subject of Homecoming came up. This could’ve been a touchy subject for a teenage girl without a date, but instead she says “I think I’ll just go to Whataburger instead of the game”.
Of course as her mom I’m all “No! You don’t want to miss the game, so many people don’t have dates, it’ll still be fun!” You know, all the things moms say to save the moment/day from complete and total teen girl meltdown.
She then says “I’m just gonna tweet Whataburger and ask them to be my date.” I’ve never backed down from a good dare and dadgumnit neither will my kids, so being the overly mature person that I am I said “Do it!”, in what was probably the most obnoxious tone ever. We continue our errands and a bit later she says “I did it.”
“Did what?” I ask totally preoccupied
“I tweeted Whataburger”.
Again, because I’m 100% adult I respond, “Shut up! Show me!”
Of course, we had a good laugh and didn’t think much more about it until later that day when she came running into the kitchen and yelled “They tweeted me back!!”
“Who? Whataburger? No way!” Oh, but they did! They responded with “When’s the date tho?” She responds with the date and that’s it right? Nope.
The next day while this girl of mine is living on the high of Whataburger responding, my co-worker comes into my office (I worked at the same high school my children attended) and says ‘We just had a call from a Whataburger representative and they want to come to the school to meet Gracie. They want to surprise her and it’s been cleared by the principal.” I go home and tell my husband about the crazy thing that happened that day and he says he wants to be there and I’m all “Sure, I mean they’re probably just going to give her a gift card or whatever but yeah come on”.
Y’all! Did you know Whataburger has a mascot? Yeah me either, but they do! A representative and the mascot show up with a mum dedicated to Gracie’s life. Cows, cowboy hats, her favorite order from Whataburger, fries made out of gold pipe cleaners, they didn’t miss a thing. (They got all this information from stalking her page so you better believe we had a talk about locking it down after that); but first we had an absolute blast enjoying this once in a lifetime moment. There was the famous mum, a gift card, a backpack, and a Whataburger beach towel. The look on her face that day is one I will never forget.
What followed was a whirlwind of press that we never could’ve imagined. She did radio interviews, Channel 2 news came out and did a fun little interview with her at the school, the post was being re-shared over and over, and all the local news anchors were talking about it. She and Whataguy even ran into each other at our local Halloween in the Park, it was absolute crazy fun that all began with an innocent dared tweet between a mother and daughter.
It’s been five years since the Whataburger mascot walked into my kids life and the excitement over that mum has never waned, people still freak out when they see it. I guess it’s true what they say, everything is bigger and better in Texas, starting with Whataburger and Mums!