Traci at the Hanson Concert
August, 1998

Traci, our niece, was 13 years old at the time she sent this amazing e-mail to my wife after going to the Hanson Concert near Chicago in early August, 1998.
Mark Gallagher

Roro,

THAT WAS THE BEST NIGHT OF MY WHOLE LIFE.  I HAD SOOO MUCH FUN.  Okay let me start from the beginning.  My mom has already emailed you but you will have to hear it from my perspective because she was crabby the whole night.  Okay well we got there at about 2:30 and Jenny, Jessica, Christina, and I went straight up to the gates where every few minutes a limo or truck would ride in.  The security guards were so mean the whole night!  They were like, 'get off the pavement!  Hanson hates you.  You should hate them.  Go away, they aren't even here yet!'  It was so mean!

Getting ready to travel to the concertSo we went back to the van and Dad had gone off to try and figure out what was going on because we had planned to camp out and stuff but there were people in line so we went and sat down on blankets in front of gate 3.  Then a limo pulled up with a police car, a van, and some other vehicles following it and everyone screamed and ran up there.  And then someone stuck their head out and videotaped us all and I thought that it was Ike so I started crying and blah blah blah FALSE ALARM but we didn't know it then.

It was actually Admiral Twin, the warmup band.  So we thought Hanson had arrived.  When we got back to our blankets Dad had gone and asked a security guard if gate 2 was open because no one was there.  So we went over there and camped out and were the first people in line.  Then while we were waiting the merchandise opened and I went with Christina, Jessica, and Jenny and I bought a poster.  Then we heard screams and we sprinted over to the car gate and there was HANSON'S TWO TOUR BUSES!  OMG!  And so we knew that it wasn't them before so we started screaming.  ANd we stayed there for a few minutes and IKE and ZAC walked right by the gate and they waved to us!!!!!!!!!! AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I cried again and we went back to our line and I stood up for a whole two hours before they opened the gates at 6 because I was too hyper to sit.

And besides Mom I was the first person in the arena because they didn't check my bags at all!  Not even my present for them or anything.  Okay I have to go faster because it is time for bed.  Okay I'll give you detail later.  Okay and then we gave my present which contained silly string, lego gum, beanie baby, and two keychains from me to one of their managers to give to them.  And I was like, oh yeah right they are never going to give it to them.  But then when they came out they HAD OUR SILLY STRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh my goodness it was sooo exciting.  WOW. Okay, and then we signed a beach balloon during the concert and blew it up and hit it up in front of us and the people in front of us kept hitting it up to the stage and it went up there and hit Taylor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Omg!!!  It was sooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WOW WOW WOW.

And then for a while these people that we had been talking to on the internet who said that they were Hanson but we didn't believe them so we told them to say 'rainbow jellybeans' if it was really them and right before I will come to you zac yells 'HEY!  To some royal fans out there, rainbow jellybeans!'  I literally fell to the ground.  ANd then Taylor started playing the chords and he said , 'yeah, to those fans you know who you are.' OMG sobbing city.  WOW!

ANd two more things.  After the concert I gave our huge sign to the manager again to give to them and so we went outside the gates to wait for them to come out.  And then I sat on my dad's shoulders with binoculars the whole time so I could see what other people couldn't!  So I saw Zac playing ball, I saw Ike talking, and best of all, Taylor came out a few times and one time he was going up the stairs after everyone had waved to him and everyone for got about him.  And then he was locked out so he looked at the crowd and saw me waving my arms wildly and he waved back!  And then he went inside!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh goodness I am going wild.  Thank you so much for the money I love all the things I have! I rearranged my posters so the bigger than lifesize poster would fit!  WOW!

Love,

Traci

PS Id tell you more but I have to go to bed and I am not using any grammer so I figure that I am really tired. 

 

 

 

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