American twin separated from his brother at birth, renamed and raised differently. Their natural parents, Jules Brooks and Maria, never married. Roger was taken by a couple who were big drinkers. His foster mom fell asleep one night with a lit cigarette; the house caught on fire, and Roger suffered from second and third degree burns on the right side of his body.
By the age of nine, he had been in four foster homes and had four different sets of parents. Hurt and wary from bleak nurturing experiences, he was an underachiever. Brooks learned that he had a twin when he was a teenager.
He enlisted in the Air Force and reported to basic training on 15 August 1955; he was stationed in Tokyo, Japan. After his discharge, he returned to Miami, FL and took a job in an aircraft factory. For the next three years, Brooks saved his money for future goals.
Feeling incomplete, he began the procedure of tracing his twin on the last day of 1962. It took 11 days to find Tony Milasi, his twin brother. When they met on 10 January 1963, they became inseparable, with every day a wonder in finding how identical they were in tastes, responses, their IQ and behavior.
Roger married on 27 February 1965 and bought a house next door to Tony and his wife. Both men were in sales, and on 22 July 1967 they opened a business together, “The Twin Market.”
Roger and his wife Stephanie had a baby daughter on 18 October 1967.