Dopplegangers

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I don’t really know if this should be in GQ, but if not, one of our illustrious moderators will take appropriate action.

When I was eight years old, I went with my family to an ice-skating rink. I was just zipping along, minding my own business, when some big kid (about 12 or so) came and pushed me down. He started yelling something like “THAT’S what you get for pushing my little brother!”

Not knowing what the frell he was talking about, I denied even having SEEN his little bro. We argued for a couple of minutes when we both spotted a scrawny little geek skating by…he looked exactly like me. Right down to the dark blue, long-sleeved polyester shirt.

Big kid muttered an apology and chased him down.

Ten years later, I was living abroad. Sitting on the main street with a friend, some guy walks past us from behind, and the girl I was with did a double-take.

“If I weren’t sitting with you right here, I’d call out to you!”

The guy sat down at a cafe across from us and, no lie, he was a dead ringer for me. Facial expressions, hand movements, same glasses and even the same walk (I have a very disctinctive walk).
I ended up speaking with him, and although he didn’t see the resemblance, his friends were completely freaked.

Fast-forward to last night.

I went to the grocery store, and when I got into the check-out lane, a cashier two lanes down waved me over.
“Hmm,” I thought. “There are just as many people in that line; maybe they have less stuff.”

So I started walking over, and the cashier called out, “Why aren’t you at the movies with your father?”

Wha…?

I get to her line, and her jaw drops.

“I swear to god, you look EXACTLY like my son!”

Except for my being 2 years older and maybe 15 pounds heavier, she said the resemblance was more than a cusory one.

Now, I’ve met people who tell me that I look a lot like someone they know, or exactly like someone they know. But I have never had a woman think I was her son, even at first glance, let alone second.

I may be meeting this guy tonight, if he comes to the bar where I’ll be.

Has anybody else had an experience like this? I want to know that I’m not the only one!

#2

While I was a student on a campus of about 8000, I had a dead ringer for me somewhere - several times I had people peering intently at me until they got about 10 feet away, and/or tentatively greeting me with something like “Jim? … oh, I guess you’re not Jim, sorry”. Never did meet my double, but we must have looked damn near identical.

#3

Nowadays I oughtweigh Papparasta by about 100 pounds, and he looks every bit of 60 even though he’s only 50 (to my 30), but back when I was a teen…

People thought the resemblance between me and my father was downright unnatural. Members of my own family would call me “Mark” (Papparasta’s name, DUH) to my face, and then do a double-take and realize it was me and not him.

As a side note, there was an issue of LIFE magazine, late August 1989, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Woodstock, with a picture of the crowd. There in the crowd scene was a guy who looked like a dead-ringer for me. And no, it wasn’t my father. Mammarasta and Papparasta both swear that my father was nowhere near Bethel, NY in August of '69.

Weird.

#4

IMHO is the better forum for asking polling-style questions such as “Has anybody else had an experience like this?”

I’ll move the thread there.

#5

A few years back while I was living in Portland, ME, I went into a neighborhood convenience store. I had just moved into the neighborhood, and had never been in that store before. I walk up to the counter with my Fresca in hand and the guy behind the register says something like, “Hey, Eric. How’s Stacy? I haven’t seen her in a while.”
My name is Mike, not Eric. I thought he was just being goofy, so I said, “Yeah, she’s great.” - chuckle chuckle.
“Cool, tell her I said ‘hi’. Is she still in med school?”
At this point I realized what was going on.
“Um, I’m not Eric, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He didn’t believe me. It took a good five minutes and production of my ID to convince him. He even brought someone else out for verification that I looked just like Stacy’s brother Eric.
Twilight zone, just for a bottle of Fresca.

#6

I just noticed that the OP mentions “moderators” (plural) for something that was kicked out of GQ, apparently. Does this mean Manhattan has a Doppelganger?

My own experience - I’ve often been told I bear a strong resemblence to other people (the most common I’ve heard was, for a time, the boyfriend on the TV show Life Goes On).

Someone once showed me a picture of their friend who they said was an exact conglomeration of myself and one of my roommates (both in physical features and in mannerisms)-- from the picture, anyway, it did look like a conan o’brien mock-up of the two of us.

The most memorable time for me was when I was standing in the rather public ‘quad’ at my alma mater, and I heard a girl running up behind me yelling, “Joe! Joe!” extremely excited. I turned around to let her know I wasn’t Joe, but before I could speak she threw her arms around me and very nearly kissed me; she realized her mistake, and, pulled away rather confused, remarking “You’re not Joe.” She was extremely embarassed, since there were so many people around, and disappeared before I could respond.

Anyone besides me ever seen the Japanese film “Love Letter / Letters of Love / When I Close My Eyes” (directed by Shunji Iwai)? One actress plays two people; the theme of similarity of both faces and names is important in the story. I really liked that movie – I wish the US release was available somewhere.

panama jack
(not joe …)

#7

I was once on a plane that was boarding people for a flight to Frankfurt. I was alone, and was going to visit my parents for the first time.

So I’m sitting there in my designated seat and my father walks by. This man looked exactly like my dad, even up close. Had the same glasses and everything. Now, I know my dad’s in the Czech Republic, waiting for me. If he’d come back to Canada he’d have told me, so it can’t be him.

But I half wondered if I’d get to Prague and find my father getting off another connecting flight.

#8

I’ve had the experience of seeing another kid who looked just like me back when I was around 8 - 10. My family saw him too.

Just think people, there’s another one out there just like me.

#9

To paraphrase Emo Phillips:

I was walking down the street the other day when I saw Billy Tyler! I hadn’t seen Billy Tyler since We were 10! So I go up to him, punch him on the shoulder and say, “Billy Tyler! You old son-of-a-bitch, how are you!”
Billy just started crying. That’s when I realised, if that were Billy Tyler, HE would have grown up, TOO!

#10

My mother once cut a picture out of the newspaper of Yanni and mailed it to me with a note saying “When did you change your name and start playing this kind of music?” I immediately shaved my moustache and have been clean shaven, short haired since.