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Original poster

What's the strangest thing you've seen in someone's house that they thought was 'normal'?

646 replies

00100001 · 14/08/2021 21:53

I'll go first.

When I was 7, I went to a friend's house, and had bright red mashed potatoes for dinner.her dad always put food colouring in food. She thought this was normal, a d everyone had coloured mash.

OP posts:
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8
Miliao · 16/08/2021 18:16

@PrentonPark
Where is your family from? Mine always have a basket of fresh bread on the table at every meal, especially to mop up any sauce remnants!

meemaww · 16/08/2021 18:16

Something that was always normal to us was to have baked potatoes, cut in half and placed on a plate with milk poured over the top of them, so the halves sat in a puddle of lukewarm milk. Eaten with a slice of bread and butter.

Everyone I’ve ever told said it was gross but it was the tastiest thing ever!

grey12 · 16/08/2021 18:20

@Bebethany grim ConfusedConfusedConfused in baby powder? Hadn't she heard of things preserved in formaldehyde?!

A small aside, I had some anatomy/physiology lessons in an old medical school and they had all kinds of strange things preserved in jars there. Including a small fetus with only one eye!

Margerine78 · 16/08/2021 18:22

This isn't so much something that was there, just something that happened...At a primary school friend's home, myself and a couple of other friends. Her mother asked if we wanted a lolly (hot day), we all said yes. The other girls who had been there before took out money. The mother held her hand out for me to pay but I had no cash (I was about 6 at the time!), so she snapped at me that she'd give me the lolly this time but next time I'd have to pay like everyone else.

The mother later became a dinner lady at our school, she was definitely unhinged!

Bebethany · 16/08/2021 18:22

Grey12, I work for Barts Trust and the museum at the royal London hospital is full of one eyed unborns and 3 arms and tails!

nancybotwinbloom · 16/08/2021 18:25

@youvemademyshitlist

My friends parents had nothing out on the worktops in the kitchen. If you wanted tea, they got the kettle out of a cupboard and plugged in, toast? The toaster came out of another cupboard. They were always put away afterwards.
My toaster is on a tray in the cupboard. I fucking hate it.

I would rather grill the bread for less mess.

It's my husband's who eats a lot of toast.

ThistleTits · 16/08/2021 18:25

@careerchangeperhaps

Growing up, I went to a friend's house for tea and you had to ask for the toilet roll before using the loo. It was rationed (one square for a wee, two for a poo). Really weird!
I have, with onion in too and a little honey. Tbf I had never had them until I moved to the NW.
waitingpatientlyforspring · 16/08/2021 18:28

@pheonixrebirth My in laws would serve shredded iceberg lettuce in vinegar with the Yorkshire puddings before a roast. Having yorkies before a roast weirded me out enough without the strange 'salad' to go with it 😂

Alcemeg · 16/08/2021 18:28

I once viewed a house where the toilet was just off the kitchen, separated by little swinging saloon doors that didn't hide much.

Blackcat333 · 16/08/2021 18:28

@pheonixrebirth

Going for Sunday dinner at my friends house and her mum put a plate of sliced cucumbers in vinegar on the table along with the gravy boat. I've never seen or heard about cucumbers in vinegar before or since. Just weird???
My grandma used to always have a saucer of cucumber and onion rings in vinegar in the kitchen... I have jars myself now.
Mumofsons87 · 16/08/2021 18:29

Was this my house? Lol. That's a Yummy dessert!

PrentonPark · 16/08/2021 18:31

@Miliao south of Naples

Bread, yes - garlic bread as previous poster suggested, never!

nancybotwinbloom · 16/08/2021 18:33

@Bluntness100

My husband eats chicken wings with a knife and fork. Oddest bloody thing I’ve ever seen. 😂
I do this too Blush
Blackcat333 · 16/08/2021 18:39

In my 20's I went to the toilet in my friend's house and shouted down, 'there's no loo paper'. (My friend had two children and a male partner.) She shouted up, 'If it's just a wee we just wipe on the red towel' I'd used a tissue in my pocket and had washed my hands and was in the process of drying them on the red towel. I only ever visited if I had a stack of tissue. And no, I never excepted a brew... They didn't wash the cutlery but licked it and put it back in the cupboards.

Houseofvelour · 16/08/2021 18:39

This isn't something at a house but something that happened with a friend's parents.
When I was about 8/9, I'd been invited to go on a camping holiday with a friend on mine and her family.
We were staying in a little caravan and me, my friend and her little brother were in the bedroom bit and her parents were on the other side of the partition on a pullout bed in the lounge area.
One night my friend and her brother were both asleep but I couldn't drift off so was just lying there and her parents started talking.
They were discussing how their marriage was a failure and how they were shit to each other. It was honestly awful and I lay there feeling uncomfortable and upset and just wanted them to stop talking.
After about an hour, I built up the courage to say " 'friend's mum' I can't sleep" and they stopped taking immediately.
The mum was horrible to me for the rest of the holiday.

Nikita1709 · 16/08/2021 18:41

When my mother was house hunting in France years ago, she looked around one which had a Wendy house in the middle of the sitting room .... with a fully-plumbed loo in it!!!!

AlfonsoTheMango · 16/08/2021 18:44

I knew a woman who kept hair from salon visits in a jar in her kitchen.

brownbreadicecream · 16/08/2021 18:49

ThistleTits Mon 16-Aug-21 18:25:08

<span class="italic">careerchangeperhaps</span>

<span class="italic">Growing up, I went to a friend's house for tea and you had to ask for the toilet roll before using the loo. It was rationed (one square for a wee, two for a poo). Really weird!</span>

I have, with onion in too and a little honey. Tbf I had never had them until I moved to the NW.

What on earth are they eating in the NW?! Grin

brownbreadicecream · 16/08/2021 18:50

@LoisLane66

This was very shocking at the time. I bumped into an ex colleague from my first job whom I hadn't see for some years, She had moved back in with her parents as she'd left her husband due to his behaviour. On the day we met she was going to her marital home (where her ex still lived) to collect the rest of her stuff and asked if I wanted to give her a hand. We went in and started packing the remaining items and I noticed some thing odd in the hallway on the floor. It looked like weird coloured watery stuff on the tiles but friend said her ex did stupid stuff and to take no notice. We carried on and when we'd finished she rang him to say that she'd taken everything that they'd agreed and left the keys in a certain place. When she dialed his number, a mobile Rang in another part of the 3 storey house. We looked at each other then she started up the stairs. He was hanging from the bannister along the top landing, been there for a couple of days so the coroner said.
This wins/loses the thread. Bloody hell Shock
Muggymama · 16/08/2021 18:51

@Lillipops

My best friend, I used to go to her house most nights and the fridge was full of M&S ready meals...curry's, lasagne etc. Must've cost a fortune but I'd never seen a ready meal before my mum always cooked from scratch, they had 3 kids, 2 adult sons and a daughter. Her mum used to go to the butchers and bakers every Saturday. Soup was always in a tin. Mental I think the amount they must've spent on food. My folks worked every hour they could but I always felt like the poor relation. Their dad was always looking for a pot hole to fall down !! Where there's blame there's a claim 😬
I had a similar experience, went to a friend's, age 10ish, they were much better off than my family and for dinner, we were given M&S prawn salad, still in plastic bowl. I was in awe and thought it terribly posh as we always had fresh, home cooked food which, at the time, I assumed was because it was cheaper. Realised few years later how lucky I was and wouldn't have swapped for the world.
supersop60 · 16/08/2021 18:56

@pheonixrebirth

Going for Sunday dinner at my friends house and her mum put a plate of sliced cucumbers in vinegar on the table along with the gravy boat. I've never seen or heard about cucumbers in vinegar before or since. Just weird???
No, quite common in the Midlands. Lovely in a ham sandwich!
Toomuchtodoo · 16/08/2021 18:57

A friends family are all their meals in cereal dishes.
I'm talking roast dinners as well - always served in small bowls that you would normally have cornflakes in. Wirh a k I've and fork.
They did it with every meal.
They were from Birmingham. Maybe it was a tradition?

Marmelace · 16/08/2021 18:57

I remember going to a schoolfriends house as a child and she ate scrunched up toilet roll dipped in toothpaste, makes me heave thinking about it now

Marmelace · 16/08/2021 18:58

Btw my nanna always had a saucer on the table with cucumber and onion soaking in vinegar, North Wales.

WestendVBroadway · 16/08/2021 19:20

@LoisLane66

This was very shocking at the time. I bumped into an ex colleague from my first job whom I hadn't see for some years, She had moved back in with her parents as she'd left her husband due to his behaviour. On the day we met she was going to her marital home (where her ex still lived) to collect the rest of her stuff and asked if I wanted to give her a hand. We went in and started packing the remaining items and I noticed some thing odd in the hallway on the floor. It looked like weird coloured watery stuff on the tiles but friend said her ex did stupid stuff and to take no notice. We carried on and when we'd finished she rang him to say that she'd taken everything that they'd agreed and left the keys in a certain place. When she dialed his number, a mobile Rang in another part of the 3 storey house. We looked at each other then she started up the stairs. He was hanging from the bannister along the top landing, been there for a couple of days so the coroner said.
While this is a really awful story , and must have been shocking for you it does not really fit the brief of 'The strangest thing you have seen in someone's house that they thought were normal ' Confused