Darn it. I get things wrong. Not on purpose, but it happens.
For all my life, I’ve been saying “Bopsy Twins.”
Bopsy. Like Flopsy, Mopsy, and, of course, Cottontail.
Yet, I just learned the other day, that it isn’t Bopsy at all.
The correctness of the matter is Bobbsey.
The Bobbsey Twins are the main characters in a series of books by Laura Lee Hope. For 75 years, the books were the longest-running series of American children’s novels from Stratemeyer Syndicate. By the time it was all said and done, several different writers had dipped their pen in the ink, all of them writing under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. But. Edward Stratemeyer is believed to be the writer of the first volume in its original form in 1904.
There were four Bobbsey children — two sets of boy-and-girl twins. Nan and Bert were eight years old. Flossie and Freddie were four. All of them were curious and full of mischief.
They were not Edmund Stratemeyer’s only venture. During his lifetime, he wrote or supervised more than 1000 children’s books under 58 pseudonyms.
There are 72 Bobbsey Twin Books, for crying out loud.
Twins sure are something. I don’t know too many. When I was growing up, there were twin boys who lived three doors up the street. Mark and Clark. They looked nothing alike. In fact, they could have been from different families.
I am not saying this about my neighbors, in any way shape, or form. But. It is possible for twins to have different dads.
It’s a rare occurrence. But a woman can release two eggs during ovulation. And then, if she is doing what she does, she can then get impregnated by two different men at the same time. This is known as heteropaternal superfecundation. It is also known as sleeping around. Either way, about 1 to 2 percent of all fraternal twins have different dads. Big, big whoopsy. But just think how interesting the birthday parties would be.
I think twins are a bit of a curiosity. About 40% of twins invent their own languages. Twin speak.
I’ve seen a video of this. Two young twins, facing one another, conversing in complete gibberish. This, too, has a term — idioglossia. An autonomous language created and shared between twins.
Some research was done on this. It seems they use each other as models for learning vocabulary. And sometimes, what they model for one another, is complete nonsense to you and me. But it certainly has meaning between them. Usually, their special lingo disappears by the time they start school, but not always.
Also. Identical twins have different fingerprints. In case you have a murder mystery you might be trying to figure out.
So much can be alike between twins. Researchers are quite interested in twins who are separated at birth. It all circles around the “nature vs. nurture” debate.
The researchers ask all sorts of things when studying this. Would they have the same values? Would they follow the same health habits? What about their thought patterns or political leanings? Mannerisms?
But you really can’t just go around splitting up twins in the name of science. Because of this, very few studies have been able to track twins who live completely separate lives. When they do look into things, they find freakish results.
Yes, the good old Bobbsey Twins. They are one little example of twins around the world. Nigeria has the highest rate of multiple births and the most identical twins. China has the lowest rate of twins.
And then there is this. Mothers of twins live longer. Seems like it would be the other way around. Go figure.
I’ve never read a Bobbsey book. But I imagine the pages are filled with parallels that only twins can have.
As for the rest of us singular people, we might have a different kind of twin somewhere else in the Universe. Our own parallel. It might be the thing that Deja Vu’s are made of. Or those sneaky little premonitions. The prickles on the backs of our necks.
We never know who might be around the next corner.
Bobbsey on, my friends. Wonder. And Bobbsey on.
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“We forget old stories, but those stories remain the same.”
― Dejan Stojanovic
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“Maybe the world isn’t really different, but I am different, and I am in the world.”
― Rachel Hartman, Tess of the Road
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“It’s amazing the difference
A bit of sky can make.”
― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
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Double your pleasure. Double your fun.
