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

When I was 8 or 9 I was invited to a friends house after school for tea.
Tea was a fried egg that her Mum cut in half for us to share
She was v thin and pale

I have been amazed at the number of people who eat fish and chips from the chippy off a plate with a knife and fork . . .

I am obviously as common as muck, and until this thread had been totally unaware of the fact.

BillHadersNewWife My mother's mother died of TB when she was small and they eventually got moved into the paradise of a brand new council house … in Fazakerly. When she developed dementia she wanted to go back there but I don't think she would have found it the same. My Dad lived in a house with no running water until he was 15 but before he died, at 92, he was doing all his shopping and banking online. Big changes and, as you say, a different world. Apologies for the de-rail.

I had a friend at secondary and her family was super weird but especially her dad. I knew her from the age of 11 to about 18. I stayed over there once at about 16/17 and woke up in the middle of the night. She had disappeared. Turned out whenever she felt sick in the middle of the night she would get in bed with her parents. At age 17.

She was born to a Docker and a cleaner in Liverpool.
Yes, my Mum, was from Liverpool. Born in 1925.

We used to put it out for the hedgehogs on a saucer or feed the (many many) kittens with it.

my grandad was was in Germany at the end of the war and "liberated" this clock from a Nazi submarine factory. It's still keeping perfect time

That's German engineering for you.

BillHadersNewWife

You can't eat a bloody fish with your fingers!

You can do anything if you try! (As me Mammy always told me ) Fish and chips from a chip shop just doesn't taste the same off a plate.

My ex boyfriends dad used to walk around the house in small bold print pants. As soon as he was home from work, he stripped to his pants to relax.

I felt really uncomfortable everytime I was there.

My mum (born 1929) used to try and get us kids to eat Pobs. But she served it with a sprinkling of sugar, rather than salt and pepper. Chucks of white bread (usually stale) in warm sugary milk. Vile! She claimed to have loved it as a child.

We had bread and milk a lot as children - at my grandma’s house. Always in a pudding basin. Always warm milk. Some salt and pepper. It was definitely a commonplace Victorian/Edwardian meal, especially for children or invalids - my grandma was born in 1901 so I expect she grew up with it. Peter Rabbit’s mother makes it for her children at the end of the story.

The bread and milk thing...that's not that weird. Just that it was served oddly. Bread and milk was a common dish years ago. Usually the bread would be broken up into chunks though My Mum talked about this one too, from the 1930s, she called it 'Pobs'.

I just remembered another one. When we were 8, my friend's parents were getting divorced, but still lived in the same house while waiting for the decree absolute. When I stayed the night, for the evening and night I was a guest of the mother, who would make us our meals and drinks and we were allowed in the rear living room. In the morning, I was a guest of the father, who would make us breakfast, and we were allowed in the front living room. The left side of the staircase was the mother's side, the right side was the father's side, and we had to walk on whoever's 'side' it was accordingly.

Aprilsinparis
.......after about five minutes they came out, straightening their ties, and dusting themselves down, say goodbye to The Mr Krays girls.

OMG, that has both horrified and amazed me. What an experience. I'm not surprised you never went back. The Krays put the fear of god into the hardest of men!

I use cutlery and plates for fish and chips and grew up with condensed milk on bread. (Still like it.)

I can't think of any really weird things but one girl I knew invited me for tea, we had meat pie and chips with tomato soup poured over instead of gravy.

I had a very privileged upbringing in lots of ways, but my father was an alcoholic who used to beat my mother and control her (we had ooodles of money but she had no access to it herself and I would have to ask him when I was 5 for petrol money so she could drive us to school) until she finally left. I used to be absolutely fascinated when I went round to others houses if I saw their parents hug or kiss. And I was sad in a way when I saw it, because I knew it had to be my parents who were wrong.

I had friends who were twins and one had a HUUUUUUUGE bedroom and one had a box room. It used to annoy me so much for some reason - they just didn’t mind!

Yes! And gets the knives and forks out!

Surely the person waiting at home for the chippy tea sticks the plates in the oven to warm and butters the bread ready?

I would always eat fish and chips with a knife and fork from a plate.
And KFC. Pizza gets put on a plate too.

Some of this stories are so sad.

Rubyupbeat that is so desperately sad. What a traumatic thing for you to witness. I hope you are feeling ok as it’s such an awful memory