By Vicki Scott
Having thought I was mostly of German ancestry my whole life, it seems I would have heard the term “doppelganger” at least once. To my knowledge, I’ve never heard of such a term. My newfound knowledge deserves an explanation.
Anyone who knows my husband Alan knows he loves motorcycles. He owns several. Alan just sold one with a sidecar that I was allowed to ride in until he buckled in Fred, who is a plastic skeleton Alan found at Lowe’s one Halloween. Fred now sits in a swing where I used to sit. Alan’s motorcycles of choice are Triumphs, which have an advertisement that features a poster of a beautiful woman sitting on a Triumph saying, “With another woman I could have competed.”
I guess I compete with Triumphs and Fred.
Triumph lovers have a group site on Facebook where Alan spends a lot of time. I walked in from work last Friday and Alan showed me a picture of his doppelganger from Belgium. It was uncanny! The two men not only look just alike and both love Triumphs, but Belgium man’s name is Fred! Alan spent the whole weekend showing everyone and posted it on Facebook. One of the responses to the post was the first time I saw the word, “doppelganger.” I looked it up and found that it meant “twin.”
While visiting with our daughter Eva we showed the post. She defined “doppelganger” as if she knew the word all her life. I asked Eva where she heard that word from, and she said did not know. Eva showed the post to a few friends, and one of them said “Aww, it’s his doppelganger!”
I looked at them and was like, “Where has this word been that I did not know it?” Everyone is using the term in everyday lingo, and I had never heard of it until Friday. I decided that research had to be done. My daughter laughed at me but needs to watch herself. We are a lot alike but do not look alike.
To relate the word in my own life, I have at least two doppelgangers. One lives close to where our children are now, and one is Carolyn Tillison from this area. Both women are beautiful inside and out to me, but I only see a physical resemblance in our hair. Many people thought we were sisters, or at least related. All three of us call each other “sister,” and I praise God for them. We are sisters in Christ.
“Everyone has a twin” is a phrase I’ve heard many times. I’ve been blessed with at least two. I took a DNA test and found that I am not German, so my doppelgangers probably are not either. Or they might be, who knows? Now we have found a doppelganger for my hubby. It would be a hoot to visit Belgium and meet Alan’s doppelganger. With this quarantine, I’m ready to go anywhere, just to go somewhere. If you need something to do, go on Facebook and find your own doppelganger.
Stay safe, y’all!