I Heard You Twice the First Time

The Fourth Annual Twins & Multiples Family Day at Coney Island was my first, and proved to be a bit underwhelming.  I don’t know if turn-out was low because the weather’s been volatile, lately (it was dry, though gray, this early afternoon), if I missed the rush (I didn’t stay for the “talent contest” portion), or if it’s a more humble event than I’d imagined.

I’d hoped Astroland would become Futureworld, Dante’s Inferno the Clonus Horror.  I wanted to be awash in genetic weirdness, for most everyone to look like Ewan McGregor and/or Scarlett Johansson, for someone resembling Donald Sutherland to point at me and let out an otherworldly howl.

Mostly, it was a bunch of kids wearing identical outfits.

It makes sense most participants would be preteens; after a certain age, it must start to feel a little silly, trying so hard to look even more exactly like someone who looks exactly like you.  When you’re young, you put on the matching twinswear because Mommy said so.

Of course all very young brothers/sisters are going to look alike when sporting the same clothes and the same haircut.  All babies look alike.  They all look like Winston Churchill.

The largest gathering, while I was there, was around a Channel 7 news correspondent.  Otherwise, they were scattered about in pairs, posing (I don’t particularly like posed photos, and when they involve twins squaring off, symmetrically, I find them rather creepy), chatting.  Perhaps they were discussing, amongst themselves, how they hadn’t reached quorum for the whole World Domination Thing.  Maybe next year.

Unless, perhaps, the place was overrun with fraternal twins.  Sneaky.

I still believe in a future where we all get our own personal Grace Park.  And mine will be able to act, dammit.

tags: astroland  coney island  twins  

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