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

[00100001]

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.

Was at an old friends house. Her dad was hovering around and asked me if I wanted to see the “museum”. It was crammed full of Nazi memorabilia including mannequins dressed up in Hitler youth uniforms. I was highly disturbed by it but his wife thought it was great as he doesn’t go to the pub anymore and spends his spare cash on auctions.

In Southport some fish and chip restaurants serve sliced raw onion in vinegar as a side with the main meal. I moved here with my partner, it os his hometown, he thinks it is odd that I like a slice of bread and butter with tinned fruit and cream (or evap)

I babysat for 3 children, 4 nights a week for over a year when I was 14. I had never, and have never since, seen a house so untidy. There was not a surface that could be sat on. I couldn’t clean around as it would be a case of where to even begin! A hoover was never used. It was awful. The children would have friends over who would comment on the state of the house. The worst part was, that they never had toilet roll and would all share a towel.

Their mother was single and used to work until 10 every night, she was nice enough but now I’m older, I can see that it was neglect. I saw the eldest daughter a few years ago as she was working where we were hosting my dad’s wake, and she said that she has nothing to do with her mum now. It’s all very sad, perhaps the mum was a hoarder, I don’t know but that dark house has never left my memory!

My MIL keeps make up, socks and pants in the kitchen drawers! Might be what some folk do but I always find it bizarre!

I keep my make up in the utility room as I do my make up at the kitchen table.

Many years ago I collected my DH from his gallery and he asked if we could call on an artist who'd been asking him to exhibit his work. I had my 2 DSs with me but he was only planning a short visit so we all went into the house. On the hall wall were three very large paintings of erect penis's. I hurried the boys past them and into the studio where we were confronted by more penis paintings, rows of erect penis's (is that the plural of penis?) of every colour of the rainbow with incredible starry ejaculations. My sons were 6 and 8 and naturally fascinated but the really funny thing was hearing my DH kindly trying to explain that they weren't really 'right' for his gallery to the indignant artist who said they sold very well in Amsterdam. My eldest DS is now 40 but still remembers that visit.

On a different note: I remember coming home from school for lunch in about 1958 and grandma had made a lime green jelly with tinned mandarin segments set in it. We were astonished and wondered if grandma was all right because food was usually beige in those days..

Re tinned salmon and sardines - the bones are not just edible but extremely good for you, as they are an excellent source of calcium. I like a sandwich made with tinned salmon once in a way, and I always mash it up bones and all. You don't taste the bones.

Not got anything to add but was thinking about another thread I read sometime ago . It’s about clearing out deceased families houses and the things that are left.
The mind boggles with some of these stories.

A framed picture of starving African children holding out empty bowls…above the dining table.

Visited a gentleman as part of my job, first meeting. He was middle aged and lived alone. Walked into the house to see numerous prams, the old fashioned carriage type, lined up along every wall. I later saw that every room had the same. Every pram was in pristine condition and contained a baby doll. The ‘ babies ‘ were fully clothed and covered with the usual blankets. Everything was very clean, I’m guessing he cared for his little nursery daily. To say I was creeped out is an understatement, couldn’t get out of there fast enough. There must have been around forty prams in that house.

@00100001

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.

I mean this sounds epic. I might start!

Two rifles on a stand on the window sill. Two. Real. In-your-face rifles. Horrible looking things. That should have been in a locked gun cabinet, I reckon.

@ThistleTits

@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

Replied to the wrong post?

My cousins always ate baked beans cold… their works was turned upside down when we heated them up!

My ex MIL fried baked beans in lard. Odd but pleasant tasting

A prostitute in the spare room. Thought it was a bit strange for an unknown lodger 20 years younger than the man of the house to be in bed at 11am smoking a cigarette. Innocent me Didn’t realise it was a brothel…

@Bebethany

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!

It's cool in a creepy way

I searched at the time: apparently the problem is that the brain fails to divide into 2 hemispheres and so only one eye is formed. I think the body miscarries the baby then. What a horrible shock it must be

@Bimblybomeyelash

I read a similarly titled thread on Reddit earlier. I’ve a feeling that this is going to be a lot less Shocking!

I read that too. Many were rather upsetting.

My friends dad walking around naked while I was there for a sleepover. That shit is not normal.

@Bebethany

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!

The Gordon Museum at the Guy's Campus of King's College London is like that too.

Probably the most disturbing specimin was the head of an elderly woman, who had a massive fungating tumour. I think the explanatory notes said she had been a recluse, found dead by the postman and clearly no family who cared enough to stop her being beheaded and pickled

The scalp of an axe murder victim, numerous foetuses, a murdered baby with the material used to strangle it around its neck...

You'll be unsurprised to learn that it's not open to the public .

Oopsy lol

Got new neighbour, been in a few months. I was asked in for cuppa, book shelf filled with porn movies, I really didn't know where to look.

When I was a kid my friend’s mother’s ex-DH lived in a room at the back of the house she lived in with her mum and her mum’s new DH and her sister.

No ménage à trois, he just couldn’t afford to move out.

They were all nudists and used to walk around naked.

This was all normal at the time, and still does actually, they were lovely people.

Hunterian museum, filled with soevinens. Temp closed fir covid but was/will be soon open to the public. Weird/scarey/fun in equal measures

@VaguelyInteresting

A motorbike, in the living room. Huge bright green Kawasaki just parked up between the dining table and sofa.

Nothing wrong with that, I had a dismantled motorbike in my kitchen for weeks. Mind you I was only 24 at the time and really loved my boyfriend.