Mandylio’s Valley Below

So, it was 1996, around march, or something. I had always been interested in the series “Full House” and I had seen every episode more than once. People told me that you could find things on the Internet about the stars of that series. I mostly liked the character Michelle, as so many people that I would talk to later on. I had only once been on the Internet, and even though I was amazed, it was slow as hell. Most people were still dealing with 14k4 modems when I discovered it, and that’s nothing compared to how it is nowadays anymore So I made the call to worldaccess.nl and got myself a log in and account there. My first email address was mandylio@wxs.nl I wanted the user name MANDYLION, because that was my then favorite album by dutch group “The gathering” , but my email account could only have 8 characters back then, and not more. The “n” at the end had to go. I also really liked a group called ” world war III” and their singers’ name was “Mandy Lio” (it was a guy, ha ha) , so I was OK with that name

Quickly I started to look up things about Mary-Kate & Ashley when I came online. There was ONE site, and it was some guy named “Sigurd Enghoff” and he was from Denmark. He had the ONLY site back then! He had great scans, loads and loads of pictures, and I learned that the twins were in a movie, “It takes two” . I noticed that the very movie was coming to theaters in the Netherlands, so I went. First went alone, the theater was PACKED I remember (last time every that I even seen that here in the Netherlands… ). I sat through the movie and thought it was great. I went with my parents one more time, and in the same week I asked my cousins to join me again, that’s how much I liked the movie

Everyone that went with me equally enjoyed the movie!! At that time, on the Internet I discovered a guy from Sweden, and he helped me with some contacts in the US. The guy from Sweden was actually an A-HOLE himself. He had lots of MK&A videos, but he didn’t want to help me with anything. First time I discovered an guy like that. Possessive, didn’t want any tears or rips in any of his precious collection. Good thing was that he brought me into contact with Brian. Brian was a cool guy, that helped me get any video that I wanted with MK&A in it. At that time he liked them too, but he would grow out of that a couple years later. For me that took a lot longer. I quickly got the movie ITT at home, and had to get myself a special VCR to play it, since the video was NTSC. Luckily NTSC playback VCR were getting more and more popular and cheaper here, so I got me one. Brian then informed me that the twins had a whole RANGE of movies out already! Several full length movies, and their adventure series. He helped me obtain those as well, and I was very grateful! I have to admit that after seeing “Fun house mystery” my stomach slightly turned . I remember thinking “Why do you think you like this?” . It was obviously meant for kids, but I knew that lots of people liked it, boys and girls, women and men, so I went along and got whatever was available at that time.

Brian got me in contact with Laura (a then 16 year old girl from Iowa, USA). He had a picture of her at home, but wasn’t able to show it to me! Scanners were very limited back then, and he didn’t have access to one I guess. He described her as a freckled girl. I don’t know why, but I thought back then that I wanted to marry her. It seems such a silly thought, I didn’t know anything about her (well, a little bit) but I still felt that way. It’s must have been meant to be, since we are married, ha-ha! Our planets aligned somehow? Around 1996-1997 I became friends with lots of people online. Marleen, Rieneke, Elin, Kelly, Leah, several people I can’t remember at this point. Some of them were going to make an impact in my life
In 1997 the only MK&A site on the net went belly up, and Brian and I started www.trenchcoatwins.com. That page became very popular really fast, with thousands of visitors a day, but the more pages were added to the net, the less popular it became. Brian eventually opted out, and Laura joined in making it with me. I guess we were known of having an opinion on MK&A actual potential (rather than other people who continued to worship the ground they walked on) and that gave us some online enemies I will spare you their names, those people are long gone and never heard of anymore.I met up with my Dutch friends a number of times,and we all looked at scrapbooks that we made where we kept our pictures in, and that was great fun! A little group of people emerged that all knew eachother and who visited eachother as well!

So, it was 1996, around march, or something. I had always been interested in the series “Full House” and I had seen every episode more than once. People told me that you could find things on the Internet about the stars of that series. I mostly liked the character Michelle, as so many people that I would talk to later on. I had only once been on the Internet, and even though I was amazed, it was slow as hell. Most people were still dealing with 14k4 modems when I discovered it, and that’s nothing compared to how it is nowadays anymore So I made the call to worldaccess.nl and got myself a log in and account there. My first email address was mandylio@wxs.nl I wanted the user name MANDYLION, because that was my then favorite album by dutch group “The gathering” , but my email account could only have 8 characters back then, and not more. The “n” at the end had to go. I also really liked a group called ” world war III” and their singers’ name was “Mandy Lio” (it was a guy, ha ha) , so I was OK with that name

Quickly I started to look up things about Mary-Kate & Ashley when I came online. There was ONE site, and it was some guy named “Sigurd Enghoff” and he was from Denmark. He had the ONLY site back then! He had great scans, loads and loads of pictures, and I learned that the twins were in a movie, “It takes two” . I noticed that the very movie was coming to theaters in the Netherlands, so I went. First went alone, the theater was PACKED I remember (last time every that I even seen that here in the Netherlands… ). I sat through the movie and thought it was great. I went with my parents one more time, and in the same week I asked my cousins to join me again, that’s how much I liked the movie

Everyone that went with me equally enjoyed the movie!! At that time, on the Internet I discovered a guy from Sweden, and he helped me with some contacts in the US. The guy from Sweden was actually an A-HOLE himself. He had lots of MK&A videos, but he didn’t want to help me with anything. First time I discovered an guy like that. Possessive, didn’t want any tears or rips in any of his precious collection. Good thing was that he brought me into contact with Brian. Brian was a cool guy, that helped me get any video that I wanted with MK&A in it. At that time he liked them too, but he would grow out of that a couple years later. For me that took a lot longer. I quickly got the movie ITT at home, and had to get myself a special VCR to play it, since the video was NTSC. Luckily NTSC playback VCR were getting more and more popular and cheaper here, so I got me one. Brian then informed me that the twins had a whole RANGE of movies out already! Several full length movies, and their adventure series. He helped me obtain those as well, and I was very grateful! I have to admit that after seeing “Fun house mystery” my stomach slightly turned . I remember thinking “Why do you think you like this?” . It was obviously meant for kids, but I knew that lots of people liked it, boys and girls, women and men, so I went along and got whatever was available at that time.

Brian got me in contact with Laura (a then 16 year old girl from Iowa, USA). He had a picture of her at home, but wasn’t able to show it to me! Scanners were very limited back then, and he didn’t have access to one I guess. He described her as a freckled girl. I don’t know why, but I thought back then that I wanted to marry her. It seems such a silly thought, I didn’t know anything about her (well, a little bit) but I still felt that way. It’s must have been meant to be, since we are married, ha-ha! Our planets aligned somehow? Around 1996-1997 I became friends with lots of people online. Marleen, Rieneke, Elin, Kelly, Leah, several people I can’t remember at this point. Some of them were going to make an impact in my life
In 1997 the only MK&A site on the net went belly up, and Brian and I started www.trenchcoatwins.com. That page became very popular really fast, with thousands of visitors a day, but the more pages were added to the net, the less popular it became. Brian eventually opted out, and Laura joined in making it with me. I guess we were known of having an opinion on MK&A actual potential (rather than other people who continued to worship the ground they walked on) and that gave us some online enemies I will spare you their names, those people are long gone and never heard of anymore.I met up with my Dutch friends a number of times,and we all looked at scrapbooks that we made where we kept our pictures in, and that was great fun! A little group of people emerged that all knew eachother and who visited eachother as well!