I watched tentivly as they showed different Hanson things all through the show. All of a sudden I noticed Tulsa's mayor on the set. I turned up the volume to see what was up. She proclaimed July 8th the second Hanson Day (the other is on May 6). They showed a few Hanson fans that had come from different parts of the country to see the Tulsa trio...then it was time. I griped my cordless phone tightly and prayed that they would draw one of the 35 cards I sent in. Then the moment came. Rick Wells (a Tulsa newscaster) drew the final card. He handed it to a stage hand and they dialed the number. I waited for my phone to ring....but it never did. I sighed heavily realizing I was stuck with the tickets I had bought months before. Then I went "Hey...I get to go to the concert! What am I down for!?!" I quickly perked up, and threw the blankets off of me so I could get up. I did all that stuff you do in the morning...eat breakfast, brush my teeth, take a shower, and then I went back to my room to decide what to wear for the concert. The plan was that I was going to wear the green Hanson shirt (the one that EVERYONE has), a pair of shorts, and a pair of Adidas so I would be comfortable...that's what I was advised by a friend that went to the Paris concert to wear.

My plans quickly changed when I turned on the tv and saw the manager of Gadzooks (a store) standing there. She was giving advice on what to wear to the concert. She was like "I can tell you right now that all the girls will want to make the best impression on Hanson that they can...so I recommend a spaghetti strap or a baby tee, big pants, and Doc Martins." I'll bet she's never spent over 2 hours straight jumping up and down in Doc Martins...but neither had I, so I was ignorant about wearing comfortable shoes to a concert. I went through every outfit I owned only to find that I had nothing to wear...and a room to clean. There were piles of clothes EVERYWHERE! I'll be the first to admit that my mom isn't exactly the trend setter of the century...I mean...she's a mom. She wears mom clothes. I, on the other hand, wear sorta grunge clothes. SOMEHOW I talked my mom into wearing some of my clothes to the concert. She wore an oversized Hanson tee shirt, baggy shorts, and my skater shoes. She even had to borrow my socks because all her socks are the really short kind, and you need tall socks to wear skater shoes. I don't know why I told you that, but I did OK? (he he he) So my mom did her whole take a shower thing, and then we went shopping. We got markers to make my sign and stuff like that...and I got my mom to buy me a HUGE legged pair of khaki pants. Then my mom decided she was gonna go buy me some clothes and stuff. We ended up buying a ton of junk and going out to eat. When we got to my house it was 2:30, and we were supposed to leave at 3:00. I was like "Mom we aren't gonna make it!!!" Since mom had nothing else to do she got online for awhile (after she ironed my pants), and I was running around like crazy trying to get everything done in 30 minutes. First I went and put on my new khakis and a black spaghetti strap shirt...and then I realized I had to polish my Docs because they were totally thrashed from the last time I wore them. SO I polished my Docs really quick, and started coloring in the letters on my sign while my mom sat there doing nothing. I finished my sign at 3:22 and we were off to the concert...finally!

Halfway through the trip we decided we were making excellent time so we were gonna stop and buy my mom a pair of blades since I brought mine along (I bring mine everywhere), and we were gonna skate around the parking lot of the Maybee Center and make a big scene. After we bought her some blades we hit the road again. You have to admit...my mom is totally cool...wearing awesome clothes, buying $300 tickets, attempting to help Hanson notice us by skating around the lot. She did everything for me at this concert...you haven't even heard the most of it yet!! We got to Tulsa somewhere around 5:00 (which is AWESOME timing!!!). We started to go to the Maybee Center, but we realized we forgot water, so we had to stop at the store. After that we were really on our way to the Maybee Center. We got there at about 5:30. I noticed a lot of cool stuff written on cars. One that really stood out was "The Hansonmobile". It had pictures of Hanson glued all over it and, of coarse, had "The Hansonmobile" written on the windows. All the good parking spaces were taken so we had to park waaaay far away from the building. After we parked we got out our signs, binoculars, water, tickets, and stuff we were sneaking in...cameras etc. We couldn't carry our skates, so we decided we were gonna come back for them.

The sign thing that lights up in front of the Maybee Center said something like "Hanson World Tour". Then we noticed a large crowd of girls standing in front of a window, so we went over to see what was up. We started asking the girls what was going on. (I got tons of comments on my sign which read "ZAC 4 PRESIDENT"...everyone loved it) The girls told us they were waiting for Hanson to come up to one of the 2nd story windows of the Maybee Center. My Mom and I thought that it was also the line to get IN the Maybee Center so we stood there for about 20 minutes. I saw some people going into the Center through another door so me and my Mom started in that direction, but somehow on the way I dropped my binoculars and broke them!!! I was like "Oh my God!!" because they were my cousin's binoculars, and she had trusted me to be careful with them while I borrowed them! Mom set everything down and started trying to repair the binoculars. In about 10 minutes they were as good as new! We continued our journey into the Maybee Center. When we finally got in the Maybee Center lobby it was JAMMED!! You could barely move! (I got a LOT more compliments on my sign while we were in the lobby..it made me feel really good) It turned out that the Maybee Center decided to sell 500 more tickets because they had some extra seats they didn't know about. We saw a lot of little girls who thought they weren't going to get to see Hanson get some tickets. It was sweet. We heard some screams from the other side of the lobby, so we pushed our way through the crowd.

There was a gate blocking off the escalators up to the second floor which all the screaming girls were pressing themselves up against. There were so many people in there and they were all closing in. Apparently Hanson was at the very top of the escalator. The pressing got worse and worse. A girl in front of me screamed "OH MY GOD, I SAW TAYLOR'S HAND!!!". I was like "OooooooK....whatever."...I mean, who cares? You saw his hand...BIG DEAL!!!! The security started getting worried. They pushed us away from the gates. Girls were freaking out...crying, screaming ...everything!!! It was weird. Finally at 6:30 they made us to go outside and get in line. Everyone was like "What? I thought this WAS the line???" So all the people inside had to go to the end of the line to get in. All the girls stampeded out...I think I actually FELT the ground shake as everyone tried to push their way outside to the line. After we had been in line for about 5 minutes a white limo pulled up, and someone goes "IT'S HANSON!!!" So all the people in the front of the line ran over to the limo only to find a couple of little girls whose parents sent them to the concert in style. We got to advance forward 'cause of all those girls that got out of line. Me and a couple of girls got to talking about how stupid those girls were for losing there place in line, and then one of the girls was like "Hey, do you think they'll fall for it again?" Before I could answer someone screamed "HEY!! THERE'S HANSON!!!!" and pointed to the other side of the building.

A couple people ran over to see if it was really them, so we got to go forward a little more. By this time we were about 40 feet from the door of the Center. It had only been 15 minutes, but the heat made it seem like 3 hours!!! Then a guy came out of the Maybee Center holding Ike's camera. I was like "What the...???" He went down the line just talking to people, and asking them to sing. When he came to us he focused on my sign. He was like "That's cool....what would you say to Zac if you met him?" Some girl jumped in front of me and was like "I'd tell him I love him!!" The guy got closer to me and was like "What would YOU say?" I got all embarrised, and turned away. He didn't go away so I was like "I'd tell him to run for president." or something stupid like that. He laughed, focused on me and my sign, and moved on. Then we noticed a plane carrying a banner that said Hanson on it. It was awesome. It got so hot that I made a little shelter out of my sign. I sat on the ground with the sign over my head, and it kept me cool for a long time. Finally the countdown began. At 6:55 EVERY person in that parking lot was staring at their watches. Not a word was spoken for the next 5 minutes except for an occasional person saying "3 more minutes." or whatever. At 7:00 the security started letting people in. There were tons of sighs of relief. The gate at the escolator had been put away. There was a trash can and a pile of signs on each side of the escolator. They made us throw our bottled water away, and put our signs in the pile. I asked what would be done with the signs, and they said Hanson would get them, so that made me feel better. We stepped onto the escolator and began the ride up to the best night of my life. When we got up to the top we looked for the door that would lead us to our seats. We found it easily because it was one of the closest doors. We got in our seats and started taking pictures of the stage. Then some lady came up and was like "You're in our seats." so we got up and walked back to the hallway thing at the top of the escolator.

We decided to buy some tee shirts etc. before the concert started. There was a huge crowd around the tee shirt table thing, so it took about 30 minutes to get to our turn. I bought the soccer shirt which is a tee shirt with blue Adidas stripes down the arms, and a picture of Hanson on the front. My mom bought the keychain and the program. Those three items together were $58....so as you can tell, the concert wasn't cheap. We went to the bathroom and bought a drink, then went on the journey to find our real seats. We went through the same door, but this time turned to the right instead of the left, and found our real seats. I was so happy because our real seats were so much better than the others. We had a perfect view of the stage. It was about 7:50 when I began talking to the girls sitting next to me. They snuck in a recording camera, and are supposed to send me a copy of the tape. Their names were Whitney and Nichole. Whitney was sitting next to me, and Nichole was next to her. We were talking about a lot of different stuff especially the annoying girls in front of us. They were chanting Taylor's name or something...it was really stupid. Whitney started chanting "gay" every time they chanted "Taylor", so it sounded like they were saying "Taylor's gay!" "Taylor's gay!!!" It was SO funny. We had a blast messing with those girls. They stopped chanting after awhile. At 8:00 exactly the lights went low. Everyone screamed their heads off. Whitney, Nichole, and I snuck down a little closer to the bottom, but after jamming with Admiral Twin for only about 2 minutes they sent us back to our seats. On the way back up we noticed all the parent's going "What's the deal? This isn't Hanson!!!!" See, Admiral Twin has much harder music than Hanson, and lots of parents didn't like it. Admiral Twin played for about 30 minutes, and then all their equiptment was taken off stage and a big purple sheet was hung from the ceiling of the Center. The sheet reached all the way to the floor, but not all the way across the stage. About 10 security guards took their places in front of the stage. You couls feel the tension in the room. Luckily the guy down at the sound board was smart enough to turn on some music.

The first song was Brian McKnight's "Anytime", but everyone was too busy talking to hear it. Then they played "My Girl" and EVERYONE started singing. It was awesome!!! After that they played "Wild Thing" and we did the wave. That was the first time I'd ever seen the wave in person, and it was totally cool!!!!! 8,500 people doing the same thing...it was just...very cool. After "Wild Thing" the music was turned off. Everyone got excited again. Isaac played a note on his guitar from behind the sheet. Everyone screamed. Zac banged his drums. Everyone screamed. Then it sounded like Zac ran into his drums. There was a lot of noise from behind the sheet. Everyone screamed. Neon lights started flashing. The music started. The sheet dropped. Everyone screamed really REALLY loud. (GUYS remember...this was a month ago, so some of the facts are mixed up...Like the songs are probably in the wrong order) My ears started to ring. Taylor began "Thinking of You" (someone else told me it was "Gimme Some Lovin'" but I'm not sure), and the screaming didn't cease. I guess I got used to it because by the second song they didn't hurt anymore. I was screaming "I love you, Zac" at every possible moment, and what was cool was it looked like he'd look up at me close to every time. They played (not in this order) "Thinking of You", "Weird", "Speechless", "With You In Your Dreams", "Madeline" (for some reason I remember what Taylor said before "Madeline". He was like "This one goes out to anyone that's seen Madeline."), and "Where's the Love" with the instruments they use now that they are big and famous. During "Where's the Love" me, my mom, Whitney, Nichole, and Whitney's mom snuck down to about 5th row...maybe a little ferther back.

We took a lot of pictures and waved at the guys. Before they finished the song security came and took us back to our seats. On the way up I dropped my camera. It rolled over to one of the usher's feet. I was like "Oh no!!" She shined the light down on it. I snatched it up, and made a break for it. On the way back to our seats I realized my camera was broken. The back had totally been busted off. That really really sucked. We made our way back to our seats and put down all of our junk (cameras etc.) It turned out that you could see them better from our seats then you could if you're down on the floor in the rows that are ferther back. Once we had settled back in our seats the guys went off stage. Some people came out and took all the guy's good instruments off. They brought out a huge green arm chair, an acoustic guitar, a bar stool for Taylor to sit on, and a small 5 pc. drumset. (Taylor used his same keyboard) They put up a curtain in the background that had three garage doors painted on it. Ike and Taylor came out. Everyone screamed. The ringing started again. Ike tuned up his guitar for a second. Then Zac came hurtling out on stage. He drenched the front row with his water bottle. When he was satisfied with his work on the front row he mounted his drums. Ike, who was sitting in the green chair, looked around for a second. He spoke very slowly only saying "Welcome...to our...three car garage." Everyone screamed.

They played every song from "3 Car Garage" except "With You In Your Dreams" and "MMMBop" (I think). They went off stage again. The same guys came back out. They took the chair, the drums, the guitar, and the curtain. After they'd broght out Ike's electric guitar and Zac's bigger drumset Ike returned to the stage by himself. Everyone screamed. He sat on the barstool thing in front of the keyboard for a long time. Finally he began to play "More Than Anything". Everyone was screaming "Go Ike!!!!" etc. It was nice. After Ike was done Tay and Zac ran out and drenched the front row again. Tay went up to his microphone and was like "This song is called "Ever Lonely" (or "Ever Longing" I can't remember.), and it goes out to our friend Ashley." It was really sweet of them to dedicate that song to him. Then they just started playing, and introducing the band. First they introduced all the back-up instrument players. Then Ike, then Tay, then Zac. Before we knew it, Zac was down from his drumset squirting the crowd again, and Taylor took over the mighty drumsticks.

Taylor can play SOOOOOO good!!!! If I wasn't head over heals for Zac I'd say Taylor should be the drummer! When they were done introducing themselves they began to play again. I will never forget what happened next. Isaac started talking to the crowd...just small talk. Me, Whitney, Nichole, and all the girls that were sitting one row in front of us were going wild. We were just screaming our heads off, jumping up and down, throwing stuff (I wasn't throwing anything, but the others were)...everyone else was silent. Ike looked up at us and started laughing. Then he goes "This next song goes out to all those girls up on the top!!!" I was like "Is he talking to US!?!" (all the girls on top...not just the 3 of us) Whitney was in total shock. We just stood there for a second with our mouths hanging open. I think that was the only time during the concert that we weren't trying to get Zac's attention. When we heard the first couple of notes of the song we went into deeper shock!!! It was "A Minute Without You"!!! All three of them looked up at the top for about a split second...I could've sworn they were looking straight at us, but so could about 500 other girls!! After I recovered I started singing along and jumping etc. It was cool that we got some recognition for all our craziness. Then they played "MMMBop". Of coarse the screaming was the loudest during that song. During one of the songs, I think it was "MMMBop", Zac got up from his drums mid-song and walked over to the front of the stage. Ike and Tay kept on playing, but they looked really confused. Zac looked around for a few seconds, and then...and then...he jumped!!! He ran into the crowd. Everyone was jumping on top of him etc. The spotlight tried to find him, but every time it did he'd run somewhere else. It was HILLARIOUS!!!

Before the song was over he managed to get out of the crowd, run back up the stage stairs, mount his drums, and finish the song. Then Isaac was like "This is our last song of the night...." Everyone started moaning, and some girls even started to cry. They began to play "I Will Come to You" (someone told me it was "Man From Milwaukee", but I don't remember them playing that song). People were singing along...even the parents. They were waving their arms side to side. The people with the glowsticks were waving them side to side, and it made it look really cool. After the song ended Taylor looked over the crowd a few times and said: "You know you guys are our favorite to perform for. You made us what we are. We plan on coming back very VERY soon to do another concert for you. We love you guys. Thanks for coming out tonight." (Someone told me Tay says "You are our favorite to perform for" at every concert...can someone verify this info 4 me please??) Isaac started talking...basically saying the same thing Taylor said. The guys walked off stage...waving to us (everyone...not just us) on the way. No one wanted the night to end. I go "Hey Whitney...do what I do." I started clapping really slowly and saying "MMM-Bop" in a 2 syllabel word ya know??? Whitney did it with me, then Nichole, then the girls in front of us....it got faster and faster until it was like "MMMBop MMMBop MMMBop MMMBop MMMBop" and clapping every time we said it. The wholeupper level was doing it. (my friend who was sitting on the bottom said she couldn't hear us, but we got pretty loud) All of a sudden they came back out. Everyone screamed (that seems to be the key sentence to this write up). Taylor was like "What's up guys? You want us to do ANOTHER song???" Everyone screamed (he he he).

The lights went off again. Everyone screamed. They played "Look At You" and "Summertime Blues"...Alan Jackson (a country singer) sings it. During "Summertime Blues" Taylor would walk to the left side of the stage and get everyone on that side to scream "There ain't no cure for the summertime blues!!!" Then he'd walk to the middle and do the same. Then the right hand side, and so on. After that song Taylor was like "Goodnight guys!!!" They all ran off stage. The lights came on. Someone started going "We want Hanson!!" (or "Hanson!!" or something) Everyone joined in. Hanson didn't come back out. After a few minutes it got quiet. My ears felt really really numb. Then someone goes "Hanson....Hanson...Hanson" We started doing that. After a few seconds they came back out. Everyone screamed. They started talking to the crowd. Some girls called Taylor over to the left side of the stage, so he went. They silly stringed him!! He looked like the swamp thing!!! It was SO funny. There was tons and tons of silly string everywhere!! After Taylor thought he had gotten all the silly string off the three of them formed a semi-circle. They started whispering to eachother. Nothing happened....they just stood there. I took this as a perfect oppourtunity to scream "I love you, Zac!!!" since everyone was quiet. I don't see how he could've heard me, but he looked up into the upper level. Then Taylor sorta turned his backside to the crowd and everyone busted up laughing!!! (everyone that I was sitting with...not the whole crowd) He had a piece of silly string stuck to his butt!!!! It was so funny!! Although everyone was laughing at Taylor's silly string insident they managed to do an acapella version of "Weird". Taylor goes "You guys remember...T-TOWN ROCKS!!!!!!!!" Everyone cheered!!! Tay bent down and let some girls in the front row touch his hands. Ike and Zac ran off stage. Tay and his silly string were left alone out there. When he realized his brothers were gone Taylor quickly ran backstage. All the screaming stopped. We decided to leave Hanson alone for the night. Whitney was like "What are you doing after you get out of here?" I was like "Going home!!!!" She goes "Wanna come with us to Hanson's house? A bunch of fans are going over there to hang out for awhile." I asked my mom, but she wouldn't let me. She was ready to go home! My ears were ringing, my throat hurt from screaming "I love you, Zac" at least 5 times during every song, and worst of all...my feet hurt from jumping up and down in Doc Martins for a couple hours!! I thought my feet were going to fall off!!

We made our way through the hall to the escolator. It was so packed!!!! On the way we saw a group of girls crying and pleading with the security to let them go down a certain set of steps. I guess Hanson was coming through that way. I didn't want to wait around to find out though!!! My mom and I got through the crowd to the escolator. I felt like I was famous or something because there was security on both sides of the escolator holding parents back that had come to pick up their kids. We walked through the parking lot (we passed "The Hansonmobile"), but we couldn't find our van. It really sucked because me feet hurt SOOOOOO bad!! After about 15 minutes we found our van. As soon as I got in I changed into my new Hanson shirt and took off my shoes. We stopped at the first store we came to. The guy that worked there was like "I see you just came from the Hanson concert." I was like "Huh?" I went into the bathroom only to find that I was DRIPPING with sweat. It was so nasty. It looked like someone poured a bucket of water on me. It was rolling off my fingers....YUCK!!!!!! My pants were soaked in something sticky from the knee down. I realized then that the whole time I'd been jumping at the concert, I'd been jumping in a spilled soda!!! I was like "Gross!!" So I went back out to the van and waited for my mom. She brought me back a Dr. Pepper (yum!!!), and we were on our way back home. My mom was SOOOO tired. She kept on almost falling asleep at the wheel so I suggested we stop at a gas station and take a nap. We stopped at the next station we came to. She slept for about 30 minutes, but then I woke her up 'cause I was ready to go home and get in MY bed!!! We got home at about 2:30 a.m., and I went straight to my room, changed into my p.j.'s and got in bed!! My brother's cat, Baby, who hates EVERYONE got into bed with me. That was a huge surprise. She started purring really loud. I told her all about the concert...I have no idea why...it was 2:30 and I was tired Okay??? People do crazy stuff when they are sleepy. I couldn't fall asleep because I kept on thinking about it! I couldn't get it out of my head. I turned of the tv, and tried to focus on that. Before I knew it I was out like a light! When I woke up the next afternoon my tv was still on. I couldn't figure out why I had sticky pants in my floor, and I had no clue why my voice was so weak. Finally it started coming to me...I SAW HANSON...LIVE...IN PERSON!!!

I called every person I knew! July 8th, 1998 was the best day of my life, and I will never, ever forget it!!!  ~Missy~ of ~Missy's Hanson Homepage~ One thing I didn't talk about was their clothes...the reason why is 'cause I don't rememvber what they were wearing. I know Zac was wearing a white V neck shirt...the V had a black stripe on it, and that's about all I can think of!!!