CAROLINE'S CORNER: WERE WE TWINS SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

My friend in Scott City is convinced that she and I were switched at birth. She bases this assumption on the fact that she is short and had a tall mama and I am tall and had a short mama. Since my friend was supposedly born in Missouri and I was supposedly born in Mississippi, I consider her idea a little far fetched.

Because neither of us was privileged to have a sister and both always wanted one, we have adopted each other. Sis shall hereafter be referred to as "Sis."

Growing up in urban St. Saint Louis and rural Northeastern Mississippi, our worlds were about as far apart as the North Pole and the South Pole.

The foods we ate as children were vastly different. I never heard of bagels when I was a child. Sis enjoyed bagels and hard rolls. I enjoyed cornbread and buttermilk biscuits covered with poodlin' gravy.

My favorite dessert was white cake with caramel icing, which Sis never heard of until she met me. Sis ate cheesecake, a dessert unfamiliar to me in my childhood.

Neither of us can ever appreciate the other's dressing. Her white bread dressing cannot be categorized as dressing to me. My cornbread dressing she can't stomach.

Wedding receptions in my neck of the woods were held at a church. Who ever heard of dancing and serving adult beverages as they did in weddings in urban areas?

To play with my friend, I climbed over the barbed wire fence, walked through the pasture, across the cotton patch and around the pond. Sis merely walked next door. She was required to stay on her block and be home at 6 p.m., when the bells on the Catholic church rang. I didn't know churches had bells and if I had stayed on my block, I'd have seen only cows and horses.

Sis had access to plays, symphonies and art galleries. My only exposure to culture was the annual senior play and my participation in Mrs. Davidson's piano recitals. Sis's class was invited each year to hear the St. Louis Symphony. The only field trip I remember was watching a donkey basketball game.

Holiday traditions were even different. Several days before Christmas, we went into the woods and chopped the most attractive cedar tree we could find. After trudging over gully and through kudzu with the tree, we decorated it and enjoyed the sight for several days. Santa Claus brought Sis's tree the night before Christmas Eve. The living room door was locked all that day. Suddenly after supper, bells rang, the door was unlocked, and there was the decorated tree with presents under it.

Amazingly enough, Sis and I have much in common now. We enjoy the same foods and entertainment. Our ideas and ideals are very similar. We have met in the middle, both geographically and philosophically. I now enjoy bagels and cheesecake. Sis goes to chop down her own Christmas tree (So what if it is at bought at a Christmas tree farm?).

It is difficult for me to believe that Sis and I were switched at birth. I think we are actually twins. If it could happen to Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenneger in the movie "Twins," it could have happened to us. Tomorrow we'll try to find matching blouses with sleeves short enough for her and long enough for me.