My Sister, My Self

At Birth, Piper Perry weighed three pounds and Tara Perry weighed two pounds. When you're that little, a pound can make quite a difference in your appearance. Piper didn't look too bad, but Tara looked fairly wretched. For a while, the hospital had various tubes hooked up to her, and they had to shave off what little hair she had. Piper got to keep her hair. So it was that when the twins first went home and family friends dropped by to see them, their mother would bring Piper out of the bedroom, show her around proudly, take her back into the bedroom, then bring her out again and announce, "And here's Tara." And she got away with it. That's a "twins" story, the kind of true tale that can be told only by a person whose body comes in duplicate. Piper and Tara are one of four sets of beautiful twins we photographed and interviewed for (text concluded on page 174) My Sister, My Self (continued from page 146) this pictorial. We are not at all surprised at the impact of these double images. Twins have always held a special fascination for mankind. In some primitive societies, they are venerated; in others, slain. And for almost a century, they have been the primary test subjects for scientists seeking to solve the controversial question: Which has more influence on the forming of personality--heredity or environment? (Otherwise known in scientific circles as the nature-versus-nurture dispute.) Probably the most fascinating research involving twins is now being conducted at the University of Minnesota by a team headed by psychologist Thomas Bouchard. So far, Bouchard has assembled exhaustive physical, psychological and biographical inventories of 15 sets of twins who were raised apart and, in many cases, had never met before their first visit to Bouchard's laboratory. It will take five years or more for Bouchard's research team (which includes six psychologists, two psychiatrists and nine other medical consultants) to analyze completely all the data they've collected so far; but already they've found remarkable similarities between the twins who've entered the program. One of several equally amazing examples is the case of Bridget and Dorothy, 39-year-old twins who met for the first time when they joined the study. At their first meeting, each wore seven rings, two bracelets on one wrist and a watch and a bracelet on the other. Each has a son, one named Richard Andrew and the other Andrew Richard. Each has a daughter, one named Catherine Louise, the other Karen Louise. Another pair, both named Jim, named their sons James Allan and James Alan. Both work part time as deputy sheriffs, own Chevys and have dogs named Toy. And both married and divorced women named Linda, then married women named Betty.

Bouchard, who originally set out to find out how the environment works to shape psychological traits, admits, "I frankly expected far more differences than we've found so far."

We thought it might be interesting to take some of the early data from Bouchard's research and compare it with the experiences of our four pairs of ladies, though they weren't raised apart.

Not surprisingly, our twins report similar physiological traits. Sheila and Moira Stone say they're both "practically blind in the right eye." "In fact," says Sheila, "I can use Moira's glasses." Cybil and Tricia Barnstable were involved in an 11-year study of twins at the University of Louisville when they were youngsters and Cybil says, "They ground our baby teeth down 32 levels and our teeth were identical, all the way. Ordinarily, any similarity in physical structure between two people doesn't go more than 18 levels. At least that's what they told us. They also found that our chromosomal make-up was identical."

Bouchard says that twins, with startling regularity, display "coincidental" behavior: Both will buy the same gift, piece of furniture or article of clothing, without the other's knowing it. That occurs with high frequency among twins who are raised together, but Bouchard found similar cases with twins raised apart. An example from his research came from two middle-aged women who reported that when they were children, they were brought together briefly to meet each other and found that they were wearing the same dress.

Our twins were more familiar with coincidental behavior. Tricia Barnstable recounts, "Once, Cyb and I were separated for about four months and when we got together again, we both rushed to the stereo to play the other one a song--the same song. One time, I went to California and Cyb went to New York. I bought a blouse and when I got together with Cyb again and took it out to show her, she'd bought the same blouse."

Piper and Tara Perry also recall several times when they've been apart and bought the same clothes. But perhaps the strangest story of all comes from the Barnstables. "Once, when I was in Los Angeles and Trish was in Chicago," Cybil recalls, "we both fell down a flight of stairs the same day at the same time. And we both hurt a leg."

Bouchard found that separated twins often developed the same tastes and habits. The "Jim" twins have almost identical smoking and drinking patterns and both chew their fingernails to the quicks. Another pair Bouchard studied, Oskar and Jack, though raised in Germany and Trinidad, respectively, both like spicy foods and sweet liqueurs, read magazines from back to front, store rubber bands on their wrists, flush the toilet before using it and dip buttered toast in their coffee.

Sheila and Moira Stone admit to having certain tastes in common. "We both like the same kinds of foods," says Moira, "particularly Mexican and Chinese. And we both love Grand Marnier. It's about the only alcohol we'll drink."

Cybil and Tricia say their eating habits are identical. "Not only do we have the same taste in clothes," says Cybil, "we both crave frozen yogurt and pretzels. We don't eat any meat but chicken, and we both drink nothing but Diet Pepsi. In fact, you might say that's our diet: yogurt, chicken, Diet Pepsi and pretzels, morning, noon and night." It must be said, however, that identical twins also differ in many significant ways. The most common dissimilarity is that one twin is an introvert while the other is an extrovert. Bouchard's research team has found that one twin is more likely than the other to be aggressive and outgoing. That observation is corroborated by what our twins tell us about the differences between them.

Sheila Stone says, "I think I'm the more outgoing of us. And I like to dress up more. I love wearing spiked heels; you can't get me out of them. Moira you can hardly ever get out of tennis shoes or boots. I get hit on more often, but men seem to fall madly in love with Moira more often."

Tara and Piper Perry also confess to the extrovert-introvert syndrome. "We're different in many ways," says Piper. "I like to party and Tara is more the homebody type. She's punctual and I'm late. She's a vegetable and fruit eater and I'm a meat eater. She's not much of a drinker, but I drink."

Leigh Harris says she's generally late, while Lyn is punctual, and describes herself as "a little more extroverted" than her sister.

Cybil Barnstable is of the opinion that if twins are too much alike, it's unhealthy. "I think a twin has to assert her individuality. If twins can't do that, it can become crippling to both of them." It should also be noted that, except for the Barnstables, all of our twins said they had different tastes in men.

Our favorite twin story, however, comes from Tara Perry, who says she and Piper were shopping together once in a department store, and both women went into dressing rooms to try on an outfit they were considering wearing onstage during their singing act. "When I came out of the dressing room, I asked Piper if she liked the outfit enough to buy it. She didn't answer me. So I asked her again and she still didn't answer me. I was beginning to get annoyed when I noticed the saleslady dying laughing. Then I realized that Piper hadn't come out of the changing room yet. I was talking to a full-length mirror."

All of which is to warn you: If you're dating a twin, be careful. If you aren't observant, you could get into a double bind. Unless, of course, you're an identical twin, too. Then you risk a quadruple bind. Which reminds us of quadruplets. But that's another story.

"'Not only do we have the same taste in clothes,' says Cybil, 'we both crave frozen yogurt and pretzels.'"