Three Pairs, Three Spares

It occurs to me that I haven't really said much about my family here.

I grew up in a very large family. There were nine children, including three sets of twins. I'm part of that third set. (That explains the "twin3rd" screen name, huh?)

My mother used to tell people that she had three pairs and three spares. I always used to think that was kind of a crummy way to refer to the non-twins, but after hearing my brother once proclaim with a big grin, "I'm the oldest spare," I realized that the "spares," had a sense of humor about the whole thing. I suppose they kind of had to, growing up in this family.

My oldest brothers are twins, then there were two individual boys and a girl, then another set of twin boys, and finally my twin brother and I. Our birth was unique enough to land us a story on page three of the Chicago Sun Times, labeled "She Pleases Everyone Who Counts." The artical went on to describe how my brothers were hoping my mom would bring home another brother, and my sister was hoping for a little sister, and my mother managed to please everyone who counted. It was a great idea for a story, had it only been true.

Truth be told, nobody wanted another sister. My brothers wanted another boy, and my sister didn't want to lose her place as the only girl in the family. So nobody wanted me to be a girl. Oh well. It did make for a good headline.

None of the twins are identical, though there is a pretty strong resemblence among all of my siblings. It often becomes a guessing game at weddings and such, where people try to figure out who is twins with who. They are rarely correct.

Can you guess who's twins with who?