To ask what the weirdest thing you experienced or saw at someone else's house when you were a child?

Have you written about the basket "flying" on here before? I've definitely read something like that before on MN! If not, someone else on here must have been to the same house :)

To whoever asked before - no, nowhere near London.

@Wilkie1956mog probably water. I have a few friends who use water rather than paper.

Used to have a friend at school and I went to her house several times after school for a couple of hours. There were her parents, my friend and 2 brothers They NEVER had any toilet paper. The first time I thought maybe they'd just run out and forgot to replace the roll, and i used tissues from my pocket. But in all the times I went there and visited the toilet (maybe a dozen times) there was never a toilet roll in there. I wondered what THEY did? Used their sleeves?!

@GiftedFish How did they make me "fly" from one end of the garden to the other? They didn't carry me all the way in the basket, they were more cunning than that, and had me well and truly fooled.

Having blindfolded me in the middle of the garden, and spun me round lots of times to disorientate me, they told me they were walking me to the house, mentioning all sorts of things, such as the big tree. But they actually led me in the opposite direction! They got me to feel the back door, to convince me even more, but it was actually some flat object that felt similar. I also found out that they only lifted the basket a few inches off the ground, but it felt like I was a very long way up! I couldn't see anything at all, not even my feet, so I had no idea.

Dead rabbits / Pheasants on tables, kitchen side, cardboard boxes, doorstep...in fact fucking everywhere. No they weren't farmers.

Also 12 bore shotgun laid on table whilst eating tea at said friends house.

Bathroom with no door!! I used to leave their house with my back teeth floating!

When I was about 8 or 9 I had a sleepover at my school pal's house - what my parents (and I) didn't know was that this girl's mum was a heroin addict.
Saw her first thing in the morning buttering toast with track marks up the arm and no knickers on.
Told my mum and obviously never went there again.
Luckily she got herself sorted and I think went on to become a nurse. She had her happy ending but it was pretty fucking awful seeing that as a child.

Things that shocked me but were not at all weird -

I remember being totally shocked when calling on a new friend on the way to school to see in the kitchen her mum and dad in their dressing gowns drinking cups of tea and relaxing. It was about 8.45 am. I was about 9 and could not get over parents sitting about undressed at that time of the morning, and not even helping my friend get ready for school.

A family in the 70s in a very working class estate who are strange food made with pulses and vegetables. I liked visiting their house, but I thought they ate strange things. I think looking back that they were vegans. This is when the rest of us were eating sausages and crispy pancakes.

As a teenager I was shocked at a friend whose parents could not bear being in the same room as each either. If one walked into the living room, the other stood up and walked out. My friend really wanted them to get divorced.

As a teenager going to a new friends flat for the first time. Her mum had a progressive life limiting illness and the father had fucked off. She had been left bringing up two kids alone, when she was struggling to look after herself. There were no floor coverings and very little furniture. Even as a 13 year old i recognised their situation was desperate.

Aprilsinparis
"Why did so many Gran's take to their beds pre-sixties. I would very often go to friends houses, and their Gran's beds were downstairs"

Arthritis and osteoporosis, as well as breathing/heart complaints. There wasn't any treatments for many ailments except bed rest. It would save the Woman of the house from having to carry water, food/drinks and bedpans up and downstairs. As well as it meaning that the old person wasn't isolated.
Their pension was needed to prop the family up.

GiftedFish perhaps they had a spare back door knocking about at the far end of the garden?

Umbrella!

An taxidermy elephant foot as an unmbrella holder 😱

@wanderings
I want to know how they did it.. plllleeeeeeaase

My sister and I had a very different home to others. Late 70’s. We are now in our 50’s. We lived in a rented farm cottage. 75p per week rent. No mains water. No inside or outside flushable toilet. No shower or bath. Seesaw, swing and windmill in the garden to generate electricity. Cut off in the winter months. No television. No central heating. Regular power cuts. Friends who visited must of thought we were weird.

My friend came to mine for tea once (we were both about aged 6). We were all sat eating dinner with my siblings and parents and she announced that after 9pm mummy and daddy lock the front door, close the curtains and daddy tries mummy’s clothes on.

Perhaps they'd moved in with the family and there weren't any spare bedrooms. Maybe it was easier to look after them there with easier access to the downstairs or, quite likely, outside loo.

Why did so many Gran's take to their beds pre-sixties. I would very often go to friends houses, and their Gran's beds were downstairs, and placed by the window, so they could see all the comings and goings.
My husband said, an old man who lived by him used to have his bed by the downstairs window, and wave and chat to everyone.

Remembered another one last night.. Meals in my parents’ house were always small of portion (we weren’t poor, but they were post war babies). If we ever had baked beans, it was only ever one small tin between the 3 of us. My mind was totally blown when I went to a friend’s house and was given a whole tin of beans to myself! We also never had waste or leftovers, as my mum was very careful to cook only what was needed, and food was always plated in the kitchen. I think we may have been the weird house, as whenever we had potatoes (like with a roast) she would ask everybody how many they wanted when she was peeling them, and she would only cook exactly that number. The first time I visited a friend where food was served family style and I was offered seconds was amazing!

All my friends were from average families so nothing much to report. It was probably my family which was the strange one.

When I was 10/11, I stayed at my friend's house. She lived with her mum and brother. My friend told me that when her mum had gone out to walk the dog one morning, a stranger had crept into the house and flashed his penis at her, then had ran away. I was petrified but never asked if they had contacted the police - not sure if my friend even reported this to anyone...

We went to stay with our former neighbours when I was about 5 - they had a daughter the same age. I remember her parents locking us in a dark garage with no light source at all 'to play' - weird. I screamed the place down. The girl is now a famous CEO!

I went to my friend's house and she had a stick in the bathroom. When I asked her what it was for, she said it was to chop up poos that were too big to flush! I started laughing and her cousin popped her head round the door and said 'Oh, you've seen the shit stick then?'.

Another friend had a very stict christian family. They were very controlling, very restrictive. She was not allowed to buy her own clothes in case they were too revealing, had to wear her school uniform on non-uniform days so she wouldn't 'flaunt herself'. She couldn't attend the sexual education classes. Was not allowed to use tampons etc. Her mum would fly into a rage about the slightest thing. One day when we were about 14 she persuaded me to go to their church with them. I was taken aback when I saw my friend, she was caked in make up. Bright red lipstick, thick eyeshadow, dark pink cheeks. Apparantly her mum was ok with this. My friend eventually cut all contact with her family and converted to Islam.

Another friend had a nice house, she was the only person I knew who had a bidet. And fancy lights that could be switched on and off by clapping. She showed me her garage and they had a pig in it. It wasn't a pet.

I thought my upbringing was very normal, but when I saw a couple of my brother's friends in a nightclub once, they talked about how insane our house used to be because we had rabbits running about in it. I barely even remember this. We used to let them run loose in the garden, and if I recall, they did sometimes end up in the house, but I didn't think this was so strange. One of them quipped that he liked our house because we always had tasty raisins everywhere.

Our cat used to sit at the dining room table with us at mealtimes. At first it was funny, then it just became normal and we stopped thinking about it. If we ever had anyone round for tea they would be sat at the end because the cat's seat was next to me.

I was the youngest of 3, with all the other mums and dads having just 2 children, so was delighted when a new family moved in nearby and they had just one child, a girl my age. We played in her garden a lot and sometimes her mum would ask me if I wanted a sandwich for lunch, and my friend was able to choose what sort
I crossed my fingers tightly that she'd choose salad and salad cream - the best We weren't given a choice at home.
When we were about 10, the mum, who worked nights in a factory, had another child, a baby boy. He was very brown cos he'd got something called 'jaundice',poor love. They moved shortly that, so I lost my only friend
Fast forward 10-12 years and I was out for a walk with a friend and outside a house I met my old friend! It was lovely to catch up with her, and she called over a boy who was playing football. "You remember C. don't you?" she asked. C. was half Jamaican.

When we went round to my friend's for tea as kids we had to eat standing in the kitchen with plates on the washing machine. We weren't allowed in the immaculate dining room.

@kerkyra oxo cubes for lunch, is that you Jane?

*Saltnpepper5" my cousin had a floor to ceiling metal gate between the kitchen and the hall because their rescue rottweiler ate the wooden one while they were out! There was only a strip attached to the top hinge where she couldn't reach left.
Had to be padlocked as the dog could open the latch!

Very outing but my mums friend had a printed out picture stuck up with tape of starving children in Africa holding empty bowls above the dining table