By: Peggy O'Crowley

"This your first time here?" asked Bob Rusignola.

Twenty years ago, it would have been a lame pickup line. But from one weary parent to a Hanson-crazed teen to another, it was bunker camaraderie, from the hours shared waiting in line for Hanson tickets, listening to "MMMBop" blasting incessantly from their kids' rooms, and now, hanging out in the Quiet Room at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford while their offspring squealed and screamed as the three teenie bop idols performed upstairs.

The quiet room at Monday's Hanson concert looked like an airport lounge or a jury pool room, as people with a few hours on their hands read, caught up on work, chatted on cell phones, watched television on monitors scattered through the room, and struck up fast friendships.

Sue Stroud of Carlstadt had brought some light reading- "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" by Pope John Paul II. But she never picked up her new book.

Instead, time flew as she and three other "Hanson moms," as they call themselves, thanked their stars their kids were into Hanson instead of, say, Marilyn Manson.
"Hanson girls are very clean-cut, nice girls," said Kathy Fuoco of South River, who was waiting for her daughter and niece. "My 71-year-old mother loves the Hansons." "These boys, they're family boys, well spoken, clean-cut, a lot of respect. Marilyn Manson, is it a man or a woman? Disgusting. This is a very safe addiction," said Mary Katz of Melville,L.I. whose daughters 12 and 15, were upstairs at the concert.

She was wrapping up a day that began with a four-hour wait for the Hanson brothers to put in an appearance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan. "My daughter's in high school, she an outcast because she loves the Hansons. But I think to myself, those girls making fun of her are drinking and doing drugs. One of them had to be taken away from a party by EMS because she drank so much. Who's in better shape here? Me with the Hanson girl or that girl's mother?" Katz said to vehement nods from the other mothers.

Rusignola, a lawyer from Watchung, chatted on his cell phone to his son in Manhattan, the latest Law Journal spread on the table before him. "This is very nice." It beats sitting in the car or going to a diner," the father of a 15 year-old girl said of the space.
"When my daughter heard they'd be here, she called me 12 times at work, and we drove down to Menlo Park to get a bracelet that only got you a chance to get the tickets the next day. Then the next day at 8 a.m. we waited for an hour and she got second row center tickets."

His wife, Kathy, returned form the spread provided by Z-100, the radio station, with a plate of laden with a ham and cheese sandwich and a napoleon. "We got a lot of requests from the parents to get tickets, so we created this area is for them to enjoy. The parents really support the station," said Matt Weig, the station's promotions director, as he chatted with several fathers.

"This is the way to listen to a Hanson concert," said Frank Turner of Somerviller, "instead of being surrounded by 20,000 screaming 13 year-olds." The Quiet Room, right next to the Winners Circle restaurant, has been around since 1987. But it's only open during shows that draw an audience young so their parents have to drop them off, said Helen Straus, director of public relations for the arena. The parents do not have to have tickets to the concert.

It's convenient for the parents. They don't have to drop them off and go home, they can be in the same building and feel their kids are safe," Straus said. We offer chips, soda, water, and a place to do work or read." Monday's concert drew largest group of parents she's seen in a while, she said, although she expects a big turnout for Saturday's Backstreet Boys concert.

Over in the corner, Jaci Campbell and Dianne Heppel of Lakewood were dispensing advice to Z-100 promotions staffer Greg Tortora, 23, on his big date Saturday night.
A nice restaurant with candles on the tables, but not outside, they told him. "The humidity is too much. Her makeup would melt," said Heppel, whose daughter and a friend were at the concert. Should he order for her? "No, you don't know her well enough," Campbell chimed in.

A movie, or better, a carriage ride around Central Park?

"I like guys who take me to the movies," offered Meredith McHugh of Pompton Lakes, another promotions staffer. But they want to talk," Heppel said. "I have a voice mail pager," Campbell told the embarrassed Tortora. "Call me and let me know how it goes." Susan from Watertown, Conn, who did not want her full name used, had
been to Hanson concerts in Philadephia and Massachusetts, and this was her most
enjoyable yet. "Its the high-pitched screaming. Like seagulls," she said, explaining why her husband was the one upstairs with their daughter. She sat at a table writing in her journal and reflecting on what a long, strange trip it had been: "I'm in the waiting room at the Continental Airlines Arena," her entry said. "I can't believe I'm here."

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