Nine years ago, Susan and Dickson DeWitt took their 20-month old fraternal twins, Parker and Katie, on a trip to Ohio.

But, it wasn’t just any place in Ohio.

The town they visited was called Twinsberg, where thousands of twins attend the annual Twins Day Festival.

Now, with the twins at age 10, the family decided they wanted to go again. Parker and Katie are older now, and can have their own memories of the event.

The festival was first held in 1976, when a group in Twinsberg wanted to celebrate the town’s birthday.

That year, 36 sets of twins participated in a parade that went through the town. It was so successful that it quickly became an annual event.

Indeed, the story of Twinsberg itself is interesting. Although they were not the first residents of the town, Morris and Aaron Wilcox bought more than 4,000 acres of land in Ohio in 1819. They began doling out parcels of the land to new settlers for a price.

Then, they offered to donate land for a town square and school if the people of the newly-formed town would change their name to Twinsberg.

The story goes on to say that the Wilcox twins were so close that they married sisters, had the same number of children and died on the same day due to the same disease. They are buried together in a single grave in Twinsberg.

The festival that honors them and the town has blown up to more than 3,000 sets of twins descending on the town each year.

That is only 400 more sets of twins than the ones who participated in 1993, the year the DeWitts first came to the festival.

This year, Parker and Katie DeWitt were the sole representatives from Alabama to come to the festival.

It was a lot bigger than what the DeWitts remembered, with a carnival and other activities added to the festival, as well as more people.

Part of this trip back in time also brought the DeWitts into contact with people they had met back in 1993.

During the first trip, Katie and Parker had their picture taken with PattyJo, Diana, Leanna and Taralyn Jaiycola from Waynesburg, Pa. For years, Mrs. DeWitt had no idea who the girls were until she read a Reader’s Digest article about Twinsberg, and the Jaiycola twins were pictured in it.

She learned, much to her surprise, that there were actually two sets of twins in the family – PattyJo and Diana are 16 and Leanna and Taralyn are 15 said the Reader’s Digest article.

When they got to the festival this time, the Jaiycola twins encountered the DeWitts once more, with the girls remembering Katie and Parker even though they were only seven and six years old when they saw them last.

Mrs. DeWitt said that they sent pictures of the DeWitts with the Jaiycola to the festival organizers in hopes that they will forward them to the Jaiycolas.

While the reunion with the Jaiycola twins was the highlight of the festival, Parker and Katie also participated in the parade that takes place every year and was part of the large overhead shot that captured the participants of the festival on each day. Katie and Parker held signs so they could be found in the picture.

All of the twins who participated in the festival became honorary citizens of the town.

Most of the twins surrounding them were dressed alike, or in similar clothing that was close, but had subtle difference so they can be told apart – such as what the DeWitt twins wore.

But, they saw both the usual and unusual there as people dressed up for the parade.

Katie and Parker also spent time doing what any kid would do while on vacation

– taking advantage of staying in a hotel.