Front Page News: Twins Sleep!![]() My sister and I (I'm the one in the back trying hard to stifle a smile) appeared on the front page of the local newspaper on December 25, 1953. Unfortunately I laminated the newspaper clipping in my younger days to preserve it and the plastic wrinkled over the top of the photo. Oh well, what are a few wrinkles anyway. It's all part of getting older. The day we got our first TV was an incredibly memorable day. The local newspaper had called my Mom and asked if they could take pictures of me and my sister to be published on Christmas day. They found us by looking in local birth records to see if any twins had been born near Christmas who would be around 5 years old. My sister and I were born in January 1948. Evidently we fit the bill. Mom dressed us up in identically adorable little dresses, with a ribbon tying our hair back from our foreheads. Normally we didn’t wear ribbons in our hair. This was a really big deal! We were excited about having our picture taken for the newspaper but we were even more excited about the fact that our TV was scheduled to be delivered that very same day. I think the photographer and the TV arrived at about the same time. My sister and I just wanted the picture taking thing to be over with so we could check out our new TV. The photographer decided that they wanted to take a picture of us sleeping, the basic “sugar plums dancing in their heads” shot. So Mom took everyone upstairs and put us into our pajamas. We each had our own bed but the photographer put us together in one bed. Actually it was the foot of the bed, which I suppose made a better angle to shoot from. We had our Teddy Bears, Teddy and Patty. Patty only had one eye, but they altered the photo and drew another eye on the published photo. I think she was cooler with one eye. It gave her a pirate kind of vibe. My sister was so much better than I was at pretending to be sleeping for the photo. She told me recently that she was doing everything the way they wanted because she wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. She remembered she could hear them moving in the TV downstairs. As a result of her focused cooperation, she looked completely relaxed and natural. I, on the other hand was self conscious and way too smiley to look like I was asleep. Not wanting to be outdone by my sister I tried really hard not to smile and they were finally able to get a decent shot. This, of course, was in the days of film as opposed to digital cameras and we had to wait for Christmas day, when it was published, to actually see the photo. We didn’t care. As soon as the photo shoot was over we scrambled downstairs to see the TV. The amazing thing is that although we both clearly remembered the first part of the day, neither of us remember actually sitting down and watching the TV. I suspect there was some delay in getting it set up. Or maybe we had to wait until our Dad came home. For whatever reason neither of us remember watching TV that day. Later I remember dutifully watching Crusader Rabbit. Dad watched it with us. We would be seriously glued to the screen and he would be laughing hysterically. I think it was actually geared as much towards adults as it was for kids. Life Before TV and BeyondAll of this and more we watched in black and white with no remote on a TV that had two channels and unpredictable reception. One of us had to stand by the TV and hold onto the “rabbit ears” antenna. It was magical!
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