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Antoinette and Josephine Wollenschlaeger sit
under a large tent in Twinsburg, Ohio (pop. 17,006), anxiously awaiting the results
to the Oldest Set of Twins Contest during the town's annual Twins Days Festival.
At 86, the twin sisters, who call themselves “the babes from Buffalo” (N.Y.), settle
for second place to a pair of 93-year-olds. Still, the Wollenschlaegers are all smiles
as they look around town.
"You feel like a freak all your life because everybody kxiks at you, and then you see all
these twins, and it's like a dream,” Antoinette says.
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Participants in the Oldest Set ofTwins 80 sets of twins reside in Twinsburg.
Contest anxiously await the winning results. xhe festival began in 1976 as a simple,
small-town celebration of America's bicentennial and blossomed into the world's largest
gathering of twins, as touted by the Guinness Book of Records in 1987. But nobody in town
dreamed that the inaugural festival, which attracted 37 sets of twins, would grow into
a three-day annual event that draws 60,000 attendees. "If you live in Twinsburg, this is
what you are about,” says Andy Miller, 68, the festival's director.
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a Town I
for Twirm
The annual festival is a dream come
true for 3,000 sets of twins and multiples
from around the world who come to
Twinsburg each August to celebrate their
unique sibling bonds. In fact, the town
was named in 1819 in honor of identical
twins Moses and Aaron Wilcox, early set
tlers who donated money and land for a
local school and town square. Even today,
it's estimated that at least one member of
Accuracy and consistency are
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If you have Medicare call us
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an HMO.
Call Discount Diabetic at
1-800-853-6127.
If you have Arthritis,
Medicare will cover a large, moist
heating pad for you at NO COST
to you. and copay
may apply.
Call 1-800-853-6127
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The annual Twins Days Festival is the
world’s largest gathering of twins.
Twins Verna and Viola Mueller, 72, of Lancaster, Pa., are 12-year veterans
of the festival. “It’s different here,” Viola says of Twinsburg. “There are not as
many stares. It s not like being the only one.”
The Double-Take Parade takes place Saturday morning, featuring march
ing twins and multiples, floats, bands, clowns, bagpipes, cheerleaders, and
ancique cars and fire engines. Chairs line the parade route long before the
first marcher hits the pavement.
When the parade ends, the festival continues at Glen Chamberlain Park,
complete with carnival rides, a food court, arts & crafts, live music and
booths selling items bearing clever twin sayings and logos.
Twins Katie and Barbara Marschik, 12, of Greensburg, Pa., perform a
tap dance routine together during
the festival’s talent show. They’ve
been coming to Twinsburg since
the year they were born. “The best
is seeing how everybody dresses and
how similar people are," Katie says,
dressed in a biack-and-silver dance
costume like her sister’s.
Most attendees come for the fes
tivities, the entertainment and, of
course, to see the numerous look
alikes in their identical clothes.
Twinsburg resident Bob Burke, who
enjoys the annual event with family
and friends, says, “We actually feel
odd because we are not twins.”
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About 500 volunteers make the
festival possible. Many are mem
bers of church and school groups,
which use the event to raise funds.
Others, like Miller, are simply pas
sionate about the celebration of
twins. Miller and his wife have a
son-and-daughter set of twins who
are both on the Twins Days Com
mittee. In addition, their daughter
in-law is a twin, and Miller's cousin
is a twin as well.
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Barbara and Katie Marschik of Greensburg, Pa.
Page 10
American Profile