THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505190238
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANELLE LA BOUVE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
``DOUBLE-FUN AND Double-trouble,'' exclaimed the banners posted in the halls of Deep Creek Elementary School last week during a weeklong celebration of the school's unusual abundance of twins.
Deep Creek Elementary has an astonishing 18 sets of twins in its student body, ranging from pre-school classes through third grade. Earlier in the year there were 21 sets, but three have transferred to other schools.
All week, students participated in activities related to twins. At a ``Twins Day'' assembly on Friday, even non-twin students, faculty and staff dressed alike and pretended to be twins.
The idea for the unusual event began earlier in the school year, when Principal Anita Jones posted snapshots of twins on a school bulletin board.
``We could hardly believe we had so many twins,'' Jones said. ``We wanted to celebrate and honor them. I never thought it would come together as it did. It was such a neat way to make us all a twin family.''
Jones began gathering facts about twins and stories about Deep Creek students who are twins, twins in the extended families of her students and twins among faculty and staff.
She devised a survey for the twins themselves and compiled funny stories from the responses she received.
She even designed a game in which classes matched the pictures of the 11 sets of boys, the three sets of girls and the seven boy-girl sets of twins.
The twins were given badges to wear, identifying them as ``Doubly proud to be a twin.''
Jackie and Jamie Miller, who have brown hair with bangs, look as much alike as shirt buttons. When they talked about a recent vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida, their chatter sounded like echoes.
``We saw Mickey Mouse and went on Splash Mountain,'' Jamie said.
``I was thinking of that,'' Jackie chimed in with a grin, adding, ``I liked Pinocchio!''
The two said people often have trouble telling them apart. Then they revealed a secret clue to their true identity. Hidden beneath Jackie's bangs, there is a tiny scar.
Kindergartners Zachary and Wesley Wright were spitting images of one another in their matching Florida Panther red-white-and-blue T-shirts, jeans, tennis shoes and rattail haircuts.
Wesley sniffed several times and twitched his nose.
``I smell cupcakes,'' he said. Sure enough, an untended cupcake on the principal's desk was easily within his grasp. But he overcame the temptation to snatch it.
While Nicholas Simpkins talked about learning the alphabet, his sister Allison pulled up his pants leg to expose a small scab.
``I was scared when he hurt himself,'' she said. ``But he was OK.''
``Sometimes I enjoy just sitting and talking,'' Nicholas said. ``I like being a twin because we got badges. I always take care of my sister.''
Jones' survey of the Deep Creek twins revealed more about the special relationship.
``He was born first, but I am taller,'' said third-grader Sarah Safari. ``He told a lie, and I got in trouble.''
``She bothers me,'' said Sarah's twin brother, Steven. ``I take her money, but she helps me with my homework.''
Ryan Johnson doesn't like it when people ask, ``Are you twins?'' But he does enjoy having someone his own age to play with.
James, his twin, likes having bunk beds. ``I don't like it when Ryan tricks me, and we both get into trouble.''
Nineteen staff and faculty members have twins in their families, including Jim Robison, a custodian at the school, who has twin daughters.
There are twins in the extended families of teacher assistants Teresa Koontz, Irene Earwoods and Sophie Lilley. Marlene Lee, a teacher, is a twin. Another teacher, Jane Johnson, has twin children, a boy and a girl.
Third-grade teacher Cindy Sutherland's twin brother, Tracy Dellinger, came from North Carolina to join her during the ``Twins Day'' assembly at Deep Creek Elementary.
``In school, they put us in different classes because I always talked for him,'' said Sutherland. ``When someone asked him a question, Tracy would always look at me before he gave an answer. So I'd help him out.''
She recalls, too, that her twin always took up for her.
``If our older brother picked on me, Tracy was always protective,'' she said. ``And I was always the same for him.''
Brenda Dellinger, Sutherland's mother, remembers that the twins sometimes even got into mischief together.
``Once after I made lemonade,'' Dellinger said, ``they took the rinds and put them in the toilet.''
When mom finally noticed them, they were stirring the toilet-made lemonade with a toy racetrack while they gabbed away.
Unusual things have happened to the twins since they became adults.
Sutherland and Dellinger got speeding tickets on the same day, though they were driving different cars. They were stopped at different times at the same location by the same policeman.
``If one dreams about the other, they'll make a call to make sure everything is OK,'' Dellinger said. ``They're connected in some way.
``In a way I always envied them, because I always wanted a brother I could play with and be close to,'' Dellinger said. ``I've always thought being a twin is the most wonderful thing in the world.''
Elizabeth Larda Perlin and Karen Larda, both blond, both paralegals and both 1979 Great Bridge High graduates, came dressed to the ``Twins Day'' assembly in matching purple-and-teal suits. The twins are sisters of Bobbi Monroe, a second-grade teacher at Deep Creek Elementary.
Twins Priscilla Hudson and Patricia Foxwell wore matching polka-dot T-shirts. They sat next to their grandchildren, Christina Wells, Ryan Robertson and Whitney Tripp, Deep Creek Elementary students.
Even at the age of 54, Hudson and Foxwell said they still confuse people wherever they go. They said they have always been very close and have had no more than three arguments with each other in their lives.
``Whatever is wrong, we always make it right,'' Foxwell said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by Mort Fryman
Kindergartners Nicholas and Allison Simpkins.
First-graders Amanda and Sarah Duptill.
First-graders Jackie and Jamie Miller.
Pre-schoolers Ramel and Rakim Williams.
Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN
Kindergartners Wesley and Zachary Wright.[ ON THE COVER]
by CNB