Bedfordtimesregister.com - Twins celebrate with 1950s flair

by Emily Canning-Dean

Reporter

Twinsburg -- Louise Thomas Whitman of Silver Lake and Lois Thomas Kyle of Tampa, Fla., were thrilled to show off their handiwork at the 34th annual Twins Days Festival.

The 77-year-old twins each made and donned outfits befitting this year's 1950s theme -- red poodle skirts -- and paired their handmade skirts with white T-shirts that read, "I'm Louise, she's Lois," and conversely, "I'm Lois, she's Louise."

"We were very excited about the '50s theme this year," Louise said. "We were in college at that time."

Sandy Miller, of the Twins Days Festival Committee, said Aug. 10 that early counts show 1,867 sets of twins attended the festival this year, down from last year's 2,034 sets.

"I think that is partially because of the weather and partly because of the economy," Miller said. "Turnout was low on Saturday [Aug. 8] because of the rain and on Sunday [Aug. 9] it was so hot."

Those twins who didn't make it to the festival this year might be able to see some of the event on the Food Network this fall.

Celebrity chef Robert Irvine made a surprise visit Aug. 8, cooking up some dishes for his television show "Dinner: Impossible." The episode is expected to air in about 10 weeks.

Even with the lower turnout, Dr. Maureen Reynolds, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said the event was a great place for valuable medical research once again.

Reynolds and several other researchers, including University Hospitals interviewed twins and gathered information on baldness, breast cancer and chemical dependency.

"This is a very quick way to gather data," Reynolds said, adding her group interviewed about 188 sets of twins in two days.

Reynolds said twins are ideal to interview, because she can compare two people with the same or similar genetics, as well as the same family environment.

But twins and singles alike say the friendships and camaraderie are most important at the annual festival. The Thomas twins, who have been to the festival six times, say they enjoy meeting other twins.

"There is something about twins that pulls [them] toward each other," Lois said.

"We've probably stopped to talk to at least 10 sets of twins today," Louise said.

California twins Carolyn and Marilyn Douglass met some special friends at the weekend event as well.

"We saw an article on the Internet about a set of twins in Pennsylvania who share our birthday," said Marilyn. "We were all born on Valentines Day, 1933."

After a bit of Internet research, the pair found the phone number for the Pennsylvania twins, Verna and Viola Mueller, and discovered they were attending Twins Days this year as well. All four met at the event and became fast friends, Carolyn said.

E-mail: ecanning@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3172