Today we have for you a special treat, a double feature – Two Ohioans You Should Know for the price of one.
Meet Jim Springer
James Springer was born in 1940. Growing up, most people described Jim as a good boy. He showed some skill in mathematics, but his handwriting teachers felt his spelling needed a lot of work. He grew up with a brother, Larry and the family dog named Toy. As a young man, he would marry a woman named Linda, but things didn’t work out and the two got divorced. He would, however, go on to find love again in the arms of Betty. For hobbies, Jim did a lot of woodworking and mechanical drawing. James was a chain smoker, who drove mainly Chevrolet cars, and suffered from the occasional migraine. As a career, Jim was a deputy sheriff.
Meet Jim Lewis
James Springer was born in 1940. Growing up, most people described Jim as a good boy. He showed some skill in mathematics, but his handwriting teachers felt his spelling needed a lot of work. He grew up with a brother, Larry and the family dog named Toy. As a young man, he would marry a woman named Linda, but things didn’t work out and the two got divorced. He would, however, go on to find love again in the arms of Betty. For hobbies, Jim did a lot of woodworking and mechanical drawing. James was a chain smoker, who drove mainly Chevrolet cars, and suffered from the occasional migraine. As a career, Jim was a security guard.
Wait! What?
If reading that second paragraph seemed a little like deja vu, I can assure you that you’re not alone. Now, the first time I heard this story, I started to think that clearly they were the same person. Maybe Mr. Springer had a second family in a nearby town and created this other identity so the two families would never know about each other. But, no. Jim Lewis and Jim Springer are two completely different people. And I can prove it. Here’s a picture of them both.
See, two completely different people and … oh my goodness, they look so much alike. Well, there is a perfectly good reason for that … Jim Springer and Jim Lewis are, in fact, twins.
Now, wait a minute, I can hear you think … don’t twins usually share the same Last Name and not the same First Name? Well, yes, that’s true. But, if that were the case, then they wouldn’t be Ohioans You Should Know.
Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were, as it turns out, Twins that had been adopted and raised by two different families. And, between the ages of four weeks to thirty-nine years old, the two guys hadn’t really met.
Twin Studies
Even in this day and age, there are quite a few things that we really don’t scientifically understand when it comes to things like psychology, biology, and other related fields. One of the biggest questions is regarding why we are the way we are. Some things, such as eye and hair color, or why Aunt Irma plays the butt trumpet every time she eats dairy foods, we know are genetic. Other things, such as the sudden desire to flee the room during Aunt Irma’s butt trumpet solos happen because we’ve learned that Aunt Irma’s farts are quite deadly to humans (and some plants).
We call this debate “Nature vs. Nurture” and from time to time in history this debate actually becomes important. (For example, when researchers discovered that a particular combination of genes were likely responsible for aggressive and violent tendencies, a few morons who were in jail tried to claim that because they had those genes, they shouldn’t have been held liable for the actions (murders) that led up to their incarceration. Luckily, the courts disagreed with that notion, and since none of them happened in Ohio, that’s all I am going to say on the subject.)
One of the problems that is faced when trying to study Nature vs. Nurture in humans is that science likes controlled experiments, and when it comes to people, it’s almost impossible to set up any kind of control system when determining “nature” or “nurture”. One person who found a bit of a solution to this was named Thomas Brouchard, and he set up something called The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, or MISTRA. The basic theory is that if they could study identical twins who were raised in different environments, they might get a better understanding of things.
If twins raised apart have similarities, then it’s probably a genetic thing. If there are differences, it was because those behaviors were learned. (Yes, I know this is an oversimplification, but, work with me here, ok?)
Before the two Jim’s came along, the study had been around for many years and had many participants, and the similarities or differences between twins was pretty much 50/50. In other words, some twins were more alike than different, others were more different than similar, and it was hard to predict where any particular set of twins were going to fall.
Similarities and Coincidences
Yes, there are a lot of similarities between the two Jims, but some of it falls outside Nature vs. Nurture, such as the fact that their parents named them both James. To be fair, James was a very popular name in the 1940s (as well as just about any other decade) however with all the possible names available, and the rarity of the identical twin birth rate – it’s not very likely that it would happen. But, chances are, it was bound to happen anyway.
As kids, the two Jims shared further similarities that were beyond their ultimate control. For example, both the Springer and Lewis families often vacationed in the same Florida city and spent time on the same beach. To the best of their memories, they were never there at the same time, but with all the possible vacation destinations in Florida, let alone the rest of the US, it’s once again, quite the coincidence.
Many of the similarities between Springer and Lewis extended beyond what researchers thought was possible, such as that both married a woman named Linda, got divorced, then married a lady named Betty. Both men named their first sons James, after themselves, which was fairly common. However, one put their son’s middle name as Alan, the other as Allen. (Same name, different spelling.)
It was believed that career choice was mostly a product of one’s personal history and personal views. Many families have sons (and daughters) that follow in their father’s (or mother’s) footsteps. Dad was a mechanic, so it was no surprise when the sun was, too.
There was some small debate whether the two Jim’s career paths were similarities or differences. Yes, both were uniformed law enforcement officers, generally speaking – however one went into the Sheriff’s office while the other became a security guard.
Their Brush With Fame
Even though Jim Springer, along with a team of experts, dig through genealogical records and was able to find out who his brother was … the two Jims did not meet in person until they were introduced to each other … on the Phil Donahue show. And, for a short time, they appeared all over the place, from locally produced morning news shows on up to The Tonight Show (With Johnny Carson). In each appearance, they talked some about how they were born together and then split apart, and perhaps a little bit about The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, but mostly they were asked about the massive set of similarities they shared.
At first, they seemed thrilled with all the national attention, but after their 15-Minutes of fame, they quickly faded into memory.
Yet, their memory has never fully been forgotten. Neither has the contributions they made to the Twin Study. It might be hard to say whether or not any conclusions were helped along by their inclusion because so many of their similarities are clearly coincidences. But, are they really coincidences … or, is there maybe something a bit more going on.
Honestly, it’s hard to tell.
