IRISH TWINS

      Well happy birthday to my brother! The Irish twins are the  same number in age again for the 85th time.  My  brother was born two weeks before I turned one. 

     I often think of my mother and how she coped with a new born and a one year old. She had no conveniences. She did not have a washing machine. Imagine washing all those diapers by hand. There was no running water. In the winter they melted snow. 

    However, we survived. this photo was three years ago.

NOBODY WANTED US

     Every couple of weeks I call my brothers. The agenda for the call goes first; How are you doing; second what are you doing and then it wanders on to what happened in the family a long time ago.

     A lot did happen in our family. My brother and I were Irish twins. Irish twins are when there are two births within the same year. My brother was born on the 6th of the month and I did not turn one until the 21st of the month

    Twins get a bum rap for being able to get into mischief. We've all heard ,"What one can't think of the other one will." 

    However, I think Irish twins can get into mischief by just standing there. 

    When my brother and I were 3 and 4 we were sent up to our paternal grand parents in the middle of the winter. I'm not sure how long we stayed with them but I remember grandma had the big feather comforter that was about 12 " thick. 

   We then went to our uncle Fred's. We got into our aunt's cupboard and found her dried apples which she used for making pies. Fortunately we were caught before we managed to eat the whole package. 

   Then we went to Uncle Albert's . Here, we found a package of playing cards that we hid so that we could play with them but we didn't know any card games. 

   Then we went to Uncle Friske's, who had a large three story house. This was a great place to run around. The teacher boarded there and took us to school the next day. Some of the bigger kids supervised us. The teacher later became our Aunt.

    At some time our family was rescued from us. The hostage exchange was made in the village.

    Why were we away from home in the winter?  We think we were sent away when our brother was born. You can see why they wouldn't want us in the house during a birth. 

    So did nobody want us and kept sending us to different families or did they all want us and took turns looking after us?

    Memories of children is suspect. One of us will remember one thing but not another. How accurate is our memory as young children? The other factor is that now we are in our mid eighties. That's about 80 years ago the this happened. 

    For us it's pleasant to look back.

IRISH TWINS

       Many times at this time of year I have commented that I'm an Irish twin. That means that my mother had 2 children within one year. So my brother was born 11 months and 2 weeks after I was born. Also my sister was born a year and three months after my brother. So my mom had three children and the oldest was two years and three months old. 

      So today is my brother' 84th birthday and I am still 84 but turning 85 in a couple of weeks. 

     It's my opinion, that Irish twins are more active and twin like than actual twins. We were very active and full of mischief. Since there were three of us , I think my brother and I had to learn to take care of ourselves and each other when we were very young. 

                                          I'm looking after Merce

First day of school for gr one and two.

                                   The three of two years and 3 months apart. 

     When my brother was young he was commonly called Merce. There are still a couple of people today who call him Merce . Where did that name come from? His brother (me) couldn't say Myrven. The closest I got was Merce and Merce stuck. 

     Our house was very small. The bedroom we had wasn't much bigger than the bed. We didn't have separate beds until we were 13 or 14. 

     Anyway this is a way to say happy brother to my Irish twin.

EeK! Irish Triplets!

      Two posts ago I wrote about my brother and I being the same age for a couple of weeks because our births were less than a year apart. I didn't intend it to be a serious post and it wasn't. I was really surprised by how much we learned. Tina at Bringing Along OCD  calmly dropped the term Irish twins. Very few people had heard of Irish twins including me. It was a term that intrigued many readers so thanks Tina.

    So I had to find out more about Irish twins. I wanted to know how it originated. So as with all things Google it didn't take long until I found it's origin. It's as I thought. The term originated in bout the 1850's and was a derogatory term used to refer to Irish immigrants who had many children.

    What I also found is that there are Irish triplets. That means that there are three births within two years. For I minute I almost thought I was an Irish triplet , but not quite. I was born late Oct. 1939. My brother was born early Oct. 1940. My sister was born early Jan. 1942. So I was two years and two months old when she was born. My brother was 1 year and 3 months old. So my Mom had three kids and the oldest was 2 years and two months old. Not quite Irish triplets!

   My sister is the little girl in the front of the picture. I am right behind her and my brother is the little guy with his legs sprawled out in the aisle.