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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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SourMilkGhyll · 14/08/2021 23:10

Walking into the bathroom and finding a (aquatic) pet being kept in the bath.

pinkflask · 14/08/2021 23:12

We all LOVE homemade rice pudding and jam and would get excited about it being served up!

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 14/08/2021 23:12

@Kanaloa

I once went to a colleague’s house as was giving her a lift to a weekend course. Her husband had made six cups of tea and lined them all up on the worktop. I asked if he was having family over but no, he just made all his cuppas in the morning then when he wanted one he’d heat it up in the microwave. I questioned if they tasted the same and he said ‘yeah you need to give them a stir though before you microwave them, just to get rid of the skin.’
Surely there is a law against such deviance in the UK?
User135792468 · 14/08/2021 23:14

@TenCornMaidens and @QueenAstrid Thank you 😊

Kanaloa · 14/08/2021 23:14

I know. They were fairly normal people, not weird in the slightest, but every time she offered me tea at work I was put off because it made me think of him stirring the skin off his 5 hour old tea.

pheonixrebirth · 14/08/2021 23:14

@Winenota

Phenixrebirth, you’ve just reminded me af my granny’s house! She always had sliced cucumber or onions in a bit of malt vinegar with sugar to put on the salad. The classic half a boiled egg, spring onion lettuce type of tea. With bread and butter, yum! We had a stuffed alligator on the stairs which may have been a bit wierd. But he was nice to sit on.
That sounds a bit better with a salad combo but it's still an unusual pairing cucumber and vinegar,saying that though @00100001 gherkins I'm on board with🤷‍♀️
JudgeJ · 14/08/2021 23:16

@L1ttleSeahorse

Oooh love hot rice pudding with jam!! I used to make it properly but havent for so long. (Puts on list.) I'd be excited about that 😁

Died food is.... strange.

For a children's party at the time of CHarles and DIana's ill-fated wedding my mother made red, white and blue bread, three coloured strands plaited together. The blue strands were all left, even though it was all the same bread.
pheonixrebirth · 14/08/2021 23:17

@Peregrina

My dad always served up cucumbers sliced and in vinegar. He was from Preston if that is relevant.
It might be a regional thing I suppose but did your dad serve it along side a Sunday dinner? I'm off to google the origins, not thought about it for years but now it's an itch I need to scratch before I can sleep tonight.
MouseholeCat · 14/08/2021 23:18

Did I see this thread on Reddit yesterday?

One of my friends growing up was very wealthy. They used to buy those yogurts with the little toy in the centre, except they woud take the toys out so the kids couldn't have them. Those yogurts were really expensive because of the toy, but the actual yogurt part was terrible quality, not very tasty and smaller than normal. Why buy them?!?

I had another friend whose Mum used to weigh each componant of their evening meal for her children before serving, presumably based on their age-associated calorie needs. That friend developed a pretty severe eating disorder in her teens.

HopingForOurRainbowBaby · 14/08/2021 23:18

@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 Nana always used to do sliced cucumbers and sliced onions in vinegar if we had a salad.
JudgeJ · 14/08/2021 23:19

@countrypunk

My 'best friend' at primary school (she was actually a messed up bully) had a goldfish pond in the living room. I thought it was amazing at the time but looking back it was absolutely gross.
I wonder if she graduated to be the woman who had a swimming pool in half her living room on Love It Or List It?
Vimtogenie · 14/08/2021 23:20

My nana used to make cucumber in vinegar usually with sliced onions as well.

We’d have it with you half a boiled egg, spring onion, lettuce salad as mentioned by a pp with a slice of bread & butter

justaweeone · 14/08/2021 23:20

Normal for us as a family is having graves in the garden!
We do live in an old Chapel
My children and their friends didn't bat an eye!

brownbreadicecream · 14/08/2021 23:20

The cups of tea and the eating crisps with a KNIFE AND FORK are the most Shock so far imo!

There was a thread about this range of wallpaper a while ago:
www.wallpaperdirect.com/products/coca-cola/multicolour-thin-stripes/155837

I haven't seen it in anyone's house but someone must have it. It has the Coke logo embossed in it (look at 'show full pattern')! And there are several in the range!

SundaySheAteChocolate · 14/08/2021 23:21

Is there anyone not now craving home-made rice pudding with jam? Grin

NoNotMeNoSiree · 14/08/2021 23:21

@pheonixrebirth cucumber in vinegar sounds like Yorkshire salad!
Perfectly normal (and delish) side dish with a Sunday roast.

NoNotMeNoSiree · 14/08/2021 23:23

@sundaysheatechocolate
Me Grin
Read and thought WTF's wrong with rice pudding and jam and then immediately started drooling, not had for absolute years and love it!

JudgeJ · 14/08/2021 23:23

@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???
In Yorkshire? My late OH loved those when his mother did them.
pattyparsnip · 14/08/2021 23:24

A childhood friends mum actually had a portrait painted of her teddy hanging on the wall . The teddy sat on the sofa in the living room and was treated like an important family memberConfused.

coodawoodashooda · 14/08/2021 23:25

A million, billion ornaments.

AwkwardPaws27 · 14/08/2021 23:26

Around 12 years old, hanging out with a friend and popped in to her family friend's flat as friend's mum was there. The flat absolutely reeked, & on entering the living room I realised why.
There was a very large tank of piranha fish along one wall, several of which were dead and rotting on the surface.
No one else seemed at all concerned by the smell.

AnnaSW1 · 14/08/2021 23:26

Tea being served in unwashed empty baked bean tins. I declined

HollowTalk · 14/08/2021 23:29

I wonder how the people who use a knife and fork to eat crisps would cope with hula hoops.

notangelinajolie · 14/08/2021 23:30

At a friends house when I was about 8. Me and some friends went upstairs to play in her room and the door of her parents bedroom was wide open. Walking past the door we could see centre stage, over the bed - a huge photo canvas of a naked woman.

My friend, quite matter of factly said, "oh that's mum".

There were several other similar photos on the wall which were not quite so big so fortunately we were spared the detail of those.
I don't think I've ever really quite got over the shock of seeing my friends mum full frontal Shock Grin

Flyinggeese1 · 14/08/2021 23:30

Just to say my grandma used to serve sliced cucumber in vinegar to eat with a salad.

Also sliced white onions in vinegar.

Not sure why there would be a snippy comment about ‘what do you think gherkins are?’.