in the beginning...

i guess we can kick off the posts on this blog with a little backstory.

the year was 1997, a glorious year filled with tamagotchis, lisa frank and warrior princesses. a timid girl named ashley had just moved to a very small town in central maine, about 170 miles away from the only home she had known up until this point. she was 7 years old (almost 8, tyvm), and had lived an admittedly sheltered life so far. 

the day mary and julie knocked on my new front door, not even a day after moving to their neighborhood, is a day that changed my life. there they were, 2 blonde sisters, with shit-eating grins stretching from ear to ear, asking if i wanted to go outside and play. obviously i did. what else was there to do on a hot summer day with my toys all packed away in undisclosed boxes? mary was a year younger than me, and julie a year older, so it seemed to fit. we immediately fell into a strong friendship, as if we had been friends from birth. they lived just a few houses down, a literal stone's throw away, and we made sure to see each other every single day. my mother became friends with their parents, and even our older brothers became good friends with each other. it was like having a second family.

we were the most stylish trio in the elementary school - rocking the "pilgrim chic".

that first summer i learned a lot of new things. apparently, video games could actually be cool, not just something older brothers played. and did you know that fireflies can be caught in a jar, as well as frogs in a severed milk carton? did i mention there's a school playground just down the road? do you wanna go? oh yes, that's definitely happening. i learned about my neighborhood, got to know all the nooks and crannies, where all the best trails and hideouts were. which neighbors to avoid, and which ones gave us cookies and let us jump on their trampolines. it turned out graveyards were a cool place to just hang out, and so was the grimy little duck pond down the road. the masonic hall was almost always empty, so let's climb the fire escape and eat pringles while we watch the world go by. empty bottles could be redeemed at the store nearby, and all the money could go to penny candy and nickel freeze pops (best investment decisions i've made in the entirety of my life, tbh). we were disappointed to learn that the strange dough recipe in the goosebumps book How I Learned to Fly does not make you actually fly in real life. it might leave you with an upset stomach, though.

but most of all, i learned about friendship, and family. and i learned about music.

mary and julie come from a very musical family. most nights we would sit in their bedroom and talk, while their parents sang and played music in the living room. the background noise was always comforting. eventually they built a garage on their property, and mostly used it for band practices. we could still hear it from the house, and it was still comforting. we would frequently listen to music on the radio, always the only pop/top 40 radio station available in the area. i had never realized how much music there was in the world. backstreet boys, mariah carey, savage garden, jewel, nirvana, alanis morissette, no doubt, the goo goo dolls, madonna, etc etc. the list goes on. i remember the first real song lyrics i committed to memory; "semi-charmed life" by third eye blind (probably not the most appropriate song for an 8 year old to know the lyrics to, but... all that mattered was how catchy the melody was, and how happy it made us feel). i learned the words in the bedroom of my new friends, as we recorded it on cassette and played it over and over. i remember feeling anxious about memorizing the words, and they told me to just relax and enjoy the music. i got my first cd sometime around that summer also. it was "the sign" by ace of base. a hand-me-down from my older brother. i loved it. the spice girls became a huge influence on us, and we would role play them often. i got to be posh spice, mary was sporty spice, and julie was ginger (though sometimes she wanted to be baby, she could never make up her mind). 

as awesome as all the new music was though, nothing could compare to another band; the year was 1997, and i was introduced to hanson through my new best friends. 3 blonde dudes from oklahoma, one for each of us (i've been a zac girl from the beginning ;D). they were cute and funny and damn they could sing. their song (yes, mmmbop) on the radio was catchy, and seriously fun to sing along to. we got their Middle of Nowhere tape (yes, cassette tape) and learned all the songs. the music taught us life lessons, like how it's okay to be different, there's always someone there for you, i'ts okay to grieve, life is fleeting so enjoy it while it's here. the album became ingrained into my soul. it shaped me into who i am as much as julie and mary, or even my family, did. we begged our parents for all the teen beat magazines so we could tape the hanson photos to our walls (seriously, we had collages... posters... our walls pretty much had hanson wallpaper). we joined the hanson fanclub, and purchased all the hanson bio books. we memorized every scene in the tour documentary ("lots... and lots... of trees..."). we even read hanson fan fiction on the internet. as the years passed, and hanson lost some of their popularity with the general public, the three of us held on to them, clung to them, because we could see the genuine talent and passion they offered. we owed them our admiration, for bringing us closer together.

eventually, somewhere around middle school, julie and mary and myself started to find other friends, and we drifted a little. high school widened that distance, when they chose to attend a different school than i did. we were still best friends, but we didn't talk or hang out as much as we used to. without anyone around much of the time to share in my love for hanson, i began to learn to love them by myself. their songs and their passion pulled me through many hard times. i branched out musically, and found many other artists who helped me through my teenage years, but none ever resonated with me as much as hanson did. all of their albums succeeding MON continued to exhibit emotion, passion, and true talent. they sang of love, of course... but they also sang of depression, strength, longing, betrayal, lust, faith, friendship, and contentment. every song, each verse, every last word, was relatable, and full of a raw humanity that no other artist could rival.

the year was 2004, mary, julie and i were in high school, and we went to our first hanson concert together. this was a major game changer, because i had never been to a concert before (unless you count the britney spears/backstreet boys impersonators... which they don't count). hanson had recently released their 3rd major album, and we knew the words to every single song they had. we'd even camped out in front of the venue the night before to get a good spot in line. obviously the people driving by thought it would be appropriate to throw eggs at us because we were waiting for hanson... it only made us laugh. the whole experience was magical. we attended 2 other hanson concerts while still in high school. and although our friends were changing, and our lives were changing, we would always have a sisterly bond with each other, and we would always share a deep rooted love for hanson. 

high school ended eventually, and while our teenage friends drifted away, the three of us found ourselves drifting back towards each other. 2 of us are married now, and the third is still single (*wink*). none of us have any children. we have, since high school ended, attended about 7 more hanson concerts together (the participants varied from concert to concert - it wasn't always all 3 of us at the same time). julie and i took the plunge and got hanson tattoos in 2010. we even traveled all the way to tulsa, oklahoma in may of last year for the annual hanson day celebration. it was a great weekend, but we realized that it just wasn't enough. hanson has been there for every step of our friendship, and we need to honor that. without hanson, would we have the same bond we do now? possibly. probably. there's no way to know for sure. but as far as i'm concerned, hanson is an important reason i have these beautiful people as my best friends. and i would like to somehow thank them for changing my life, not just through their music, but through the bond that music has created between my sisters and i.

we died this night. in the best possible way.

the year is now 2014. it is 17 years after we first met. hanson has released 6 major studio albums, as well as a plethora of live albums and dvds, fan-club-members-only EP's, and documentaries. they have their own record label. they are still touring internationally - selling out venues - and engaging with their fans through members-only events such as hanson day. their fans have been invited to participate in their music videos on more than one occasion. they post photos and videos and blogs online to keep us in the loop. through numerous barefoot 1-mile walks with their fans, in countless cities, they increased awareness of and raised money to fight against poverty and aids in africa. they partnered with toms shoes to develop a "shoe drop", which donates shoes to children in africa. they even have their own beer (mmmhops. yep.) and yet, people still give us funny looks when we talk about hanson. they still ask us "oh, those long-haired girls from the 90's? they were sooo hot" (*eye roll*). they take pictures of the "i <3 hanson" sticker on my car, or the mmmbop license plate on julie's, while we're driving. they question our sanity when we reveal our tattoos to them (okay, so that one might be justified...). some people i've met don't even know who hanson is, or don't remember them anymore. others, upon discovering our favorite band, will remember and attempt to sing mmmbop, but butcher it so bad it's embarrassing even to us. all the jokes and the scoffs and the crap we've had to put up with got really old years ago, so it's really no bother to us anymore. we usually just shrug it off, and smile to ourselves because no one understands like we do. but it would be nice to make some people understand why this band means so much to us.

so this year, we are planning the ultimate hanson pilgrimage. all three of us are planning to return in may to hanson day in tulsa. but this time, we are making an event out of it. the loose outline is as follows: we will drive from maine to boston. fly from boston to las vegas. rent a convertable and drive (over the course of 5 days) from las vegas to tulsa, along route 66. do miscellaneous sight seeing and touristy road trip stuff along the way. spend 3 days in tulsa for hanson day. drive to wichita. fly back to boston. drive back to maine. we are looking for something on this trip. maybe it's hanson, maybe it's genuine americana. maybe we are looking to deepen our friendship, or just to find a good burrito. maybe we are looking for ourselves... i'm sure it's a combination of all these. none of us have been on a trip quite like this one, a genuine road trip on unfamiliar roads with best friends. but it's something we each need, and we know it will change our lives forever, just like hanson has. and just like our friendship will continue to do.

so if you've read this far, congratulations! you are now obligated to follow along on our journey. we will be updating this blog with narratives, photos, videos, etc. we don't leave until may 11th, so we've got just over 2 months to prepare. the tickets have already been purchased, and the general itinerary has been determined, but there's still a lot of planning to do, so stay tuned.

--ashley