Meet Brandon, Lisa and Josh…three 20-somethings united by their age, and shared employer. Like many co-workers, theirs is a relationship based on commonalities, with 40-50 hours a week spent in each others’ company, often discussing things that they have in common. And of the many things which they do have in common, they had remained largely ignorant of a shared experience from almost a decade before. In 2008, rock band Paramore was making their way across the continental United States as part of their hugely successful Honda Civic Tour. While the band would later falter amidst drama surrounding the “manufactured” nature of their formation, and tension regarding front-woman Hayley Williams’ prioritization over other members, the tour gave fans everything they could have asked for. In fact, Paramore’s financial partnership with automaker Honda helped to make the tour even more appealing to fans. At each and every stop of the tour, four fans in attendance would be pulled from the audience at random, and participate in a fun on-stage contest, where the winner would leave the concert behind the wheel of a brand new Honda Civic. And when the tour made its way to Boston, it would sow the seeds of a bizarre coincidence that would only come to light eight years later, at a NH-based used cars dealership, where we rejoin the co-working comrades introduced above.
Lisa, who (in her mid-twenties) was preparing to purchase her first vehicle, had asked for her co-workers’ assistance in looking at pre-owned vehicles. Brandon and Josh were, of course, glad to help. And while Lisa was looking for an older model pickup, what awaited them was an old acquaintance in the form of a 2009 Honda Civic.
Being the most ‘automotively-savvy’, Brandon was the first to notice the car sharing, “Whenever I see a Honda Civic, it reminds me of this Paramore concert I went to. They were giving away one of these, and I was actually one of the finalists.”
According to Lisa, “I paused at first. It’s like I wasn’t making the connection, and then I realized that Brandon was there the same time that I was. We both had a chance to win a car at the same concert” Josh’s reaction was similar, and the three came to the conclusion that they had stood on that stage together, as someone else won the (then) coveted Civic.
“It was definitely an odd coincidence,” shared Josh. “I mean, what are the chances that, out of thousands of people, we were up there together, and would end up working together a decade later?”
“Each of us logged into our MySpace accounts and pulled up old photos of ourselves, and laughed at our old haircuts.”
Of course, all three asked us to change their names in this article, since none of them wanted people to find out what big Paramore fans they were. Especially ‘Brandon’ who has gone through great lengths to change his image to that of a rugged, bearded Jeep enthusiast. “Yeah, I grew the beard and increased my caloric intake quite a bit. I also had an intricate surgical procedure which removed all of my flowing and easily-manageable hair.”
Josh just pointed and laughed, until he realized they had the same haircut back then. That’s when Lisa proceeded to cup her hands around her mouth and yell out, “Gayyyyyyyyyyy!”
