Looks like my dad

I always wanted to have twins. Now I do. No this is not a major announcement. Those kinds of announcements are my daughter-in-law’s exclusive privilege these days. And, even though we have grandchildren expected at Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, neither of them is expecting twins.
It would be nice. My father is an identical twin. His aunt was a camera bug and we have dozens of pictures of the two of them. Two little boys crying on their blanket in the yard, in the barn yard wearing their bib overalls and with the football team at their school. In my favorite picture they are sitting on the edge of the porch at her grandfather’s country store with their sister between them, holding bottles of soda pop. A long time ago, someone wrote on the bottom of the picture, “pop drinkers.”
My father and his brother have a special bond. They married within a year of each other. Seven years later they have provided my grandparents with nine grandchildren. With matching fathers we had matching cousins. My uncle was at an auction with his youngest son and daughter when a man he did not know came over and greet him familiarly. Through the years of matching fathers, we had matching clothes, Christmas gift and dairy farms.
The clothes, toys and games weren’t so bad, but having look alike father caused some confusion. Especially at Christmas when my grandmother insisted on giving each of them a new plaid flannel shirt and insisted they wear them. The little kids couldn’t tell them apart.
I watched my youngest cousin, born several years after the first batch of grandchildren, realize she had two daddies, one Christmas after the shirts were opened. Holding hr gift, she headed across the room to show her daddy. Se stopped as she saw not one, but two daddies each in a flannel shirt, sitting on the couch. She looked at first one, then the other, studying their faces, her eyes puzzled. Her mother, my mom and the twin’s sister watched with quiet amusement. They had seen this happen with the 10 other grandchildren. My cousin quickly figured out the individual facial nuances.
That’s how I know I finally have twins. During our recent visit to New Orleans, the 18-month-old granddaughter came out of the bedroom after a nap and was confronted with two daddies. Her father and four-years-younger uncle. Both sported goatees at the time. They wear similar glasses and have curly mops of hair of similar lengths. Both were sitting on the floor near the door when she walked out of the bedroom. She looked back and forth between her uncle, her dad, her uncle her dad. The rest of us watched with quiet amusement. She finally figured it out. She grinned a if it all were a big joke and ran to her daddy.
Been there, done that at the same age. I just never thought it would happen with my grandchildren.