Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402210316
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER|
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And that was before they were born.
When their mother was pregnant, her doctor gave her a sonogram, which is a procedure where a mother and a doctor can see a picture of a baby before it is born on something that looks a lot like a small television screen.
Robert and John are 9-year-old twins.
John says he likes being a twin because if you ever get hurt, your twin will always be there to help.
``I like being a twin because there's always someone to play with,'' said Robert.
Robert and John are identical twins. When twins are identical - which means they look almost exactly alike - they came from one of their mother's eggs which was split in two to form two babies.
Gary and Gerald Gregory, 10-year-old twins who go to Raleigh Court Elementary School with Robert and John Barrett, are fraternal twins.
Fraternal twins don't always look very much alike.
That's because they were born at the same time, but came from two different eggs.
A lot of the students who wrote to Newsfun's MiniForum said they didn't think they'd like to be a twin, because they were afraid people would always mix them up and that they would have to share everything all of the time.
But like the other twins, Gary and Gerald like being twins a lot.
``We never really get sick of each other,'' said Gary. ``Well, not much. Not usually.''
``And we're in the same class so when we have some homework to do we can help each other,'' said Gerald.
But being a twin isn't all that much different than just having a brother or sister.
``Sometimes when I want something, he gets it,'' said Gary.
Gary and Gerald didn't like it when they were dressed alike when they were younger. But as soon as they told their mother they didn't like wearing the same clothes, that was OK with her.
John and Robert have never really dressed alike.
John likes one kind of socks, Robert likes another.
Mary and Myra Bankert, 9-year-old twins who live in Buchanan, still like dressing alike.
Their grandmother, Ann Bankert, has been making their clothes since they were born.
Mary and Myra are identical twins. It's hard to tell which one is Mary and which one is Myra, but they're still very different.
In fact, one of the hardest things about being a twin is that some people assume that you and your twin like all the same things.
And most times, that's not true.
For example:
Mary likes the Redskins.
Myra likes the Cowboys.
Gerald likes artichokes.
Gary likes what he calls ``normal foods,'' like pizza and hot dogs.
And when John and Robert start playing baseball this spring, John wants to play the outfield.
Robert wants to play first or second base.
Sometimes twins have fun playing games with people to see if they can tell them apart.
``Once when we had a substitute teacher and we had to write down our names, I said my name was `Scott' and Gary said his name was `David,''' Gary admitted.
The game didn't last long.
``She kinda noticed when we weren't calling each other the names we wrote down,'' said Gary.
It's harder for Gerald and Gary to play games like this because they don't look very much alike.
To them, Robert and John are really twins.
``No one can tell them apart,'' said Gary. ``So we just call them both `Barrett.'''
``I can't even tell which one is me in some pictures,'' said Robert.
It's hard. Sometimes you have to look very closely.
But just like snowflakes, no two people ever look exactly alike.
by CNB