By Ann McGough

Two years ago, someone gave my daughter a video as a gift. On the video case were four regular-looking guys in crew neck sweaters. At the time, Ellen was an only child and she was not (and, at the time I thought, never would become) a television watcher. So, I passed the video along to a friend who did allow her own daughter to wile away the hours in front of the boob tube.

A year later, I ran across these four lads again. This time, however, they were on the cover of a CD, and since we are always in the market for new car music, I made the purchase. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I now know a lot more about these guys than I care to admit. I know that three of the four Wiggles, Greg Page (yellow shirt), Anthoney Field (blue shirt), and Murray Cook (red shirt), are each married with two children apiece. Jeff Fatt, (purple shirt) is single. Greg, Anthoney, and Murray met while they were studying early childhood development at Sydney's Macquarrie University. The three began writing children's songs as a music project.

They enlisted the help of Jeff, who had played with Anthoney in a rock band called The Cockroaches in the 1980s. The four videotaped themselves, sent the tape to ABC and the rest is history.

The Wiggles, as these four Australian guys came to be known, sang and danced their way into the hearts of my children. I have grown to like them myself. The children and I listen to The Wiggles all of the time. And sometimes, when I am in the car alone, I have been known to sing through three verses of "Fruit Salad" before it dawns on me that I am alone, and therefore free to listen to anything I want, from Kiss 108 to NPR to Howard Stern.

But the Wiggles just grow on you.

We graduated from listening to the Wiggles to watching the Wiggles. In addition to singing cute little songs about everything from dinosaurs to pirates, the Wiggles also provide some informative tips about good eating habits, personal hygiene, and good manners. The message is always relayed through song. While the songs of Little Orphan Annie, Mary Poppins, and Eliza Doolittle have long engaged my daughter, the Wiggles were the first to really enthrall Mikey.

So, the next step beyond listening to and watching the Wiggles is, of course, seeing them on stage. I did some research (in July) and learned that the Wiggles would be performing at the Providence Performing Arts Center in November and tickets would go on sale in September. I announced to my husband, matter of factly, that on the eve of the Wiggles ticket sale in Providence I was going to drive down at midnight and camp out, so as to be sure to get "good seats."

Well, my spouse thought this was a crazy idea. First off, he did not want the mother of his three children driving on 95 South at 1:00 am. Secondly, he had easily procured tickets to see Bruce Springstein at Fenway Park; the Wiggles couldn't be more popular than The Boss!

On Saturday, September 20, I began calling at 9:50, hoping to get through by the time tickets officially went on sale at 10:00. Forty-five minutes of busy signals and telling my children to "give mommy a second on the phone," I aborted the mission. But I discovered that the tickets for the Lowell show would be on sale just a few days later. This, I thought, would be a breeze. We Bostonians seem to think that we are superior to the other, smaller cities in the Commonwealth.

"How many people will want to drive to Lowell to see the Wiggles?"

Well, apparently a lot. Because although my husband and my sister were on the phones and I was on-line and on the phone, the best seats we could get at 10:27 a.m. were rear balcony seats (as in: almost the back row) for the 7 p.m. show. Sure, the kids might be asleep by intermission, but, hey, we are going!

As my ticket search wound down, I asked myself, who wants to see the Wiggles, me or my children? Sure, they like the Wiggles, maybe even love them. But do two and three year olds really differentiate between a television program and a live performance? Would my kids be in therapy one day because Mom didn't get Wiggles tickets? No and no.

But it will be fun to see their reactions when Dorothy the Dinosaur and Captain Feathersword walk on stage and watch them "Doin' the Monkey" right along with the rest of the mini Wiggles fans. I guess it is for my enjoyment as much as theirs.