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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
FortunesFave · 14/08/2021 23:31

@Cosmos123

At a friend's house and it was dessert night. The whole family were excited about their family dessert.

It was rice pudding with a dollop of jam in the middle.

This is quite normal....we ate it all the time in school during the 70s! What's strange about that?
Longdistance · 14/08/2021 23:31

My parents used to serve us sweet corn as pudding Blush after Sunday dinner as a treat. In a bowl.
My dm used to serve cucumber in vinegar at the dinner table on a Sunday.
My parents are Hungarian.

rainbowlou · 14/08/2021 23:33

My ex inlaws had loads of bronze ornaments and framed sketches of people in all kinds of sex positions dotted all around their home.
He almost looked like he got a kick out of pointing them out to me when I first met them (not that he needed to, they were everywhere!!)

FortunesFave · 14/08/2021 23:33

@ColdTattyWaitingForSummer

I know it’s not actually that odd, but going to a friend’s house for tea and it being served as soon as we got in after school. We always had ours at half past six, when my dad got home, I’d never met anyone who ate so early before.
I used to make my DDs tea to be ready at 4.00 when they got home. They were always so hungry when they were about 10, that it made more sense, otherwise they'd want biscuits or crap.

Then they'd be happy until about 6.30 or 7 and have a sort of small supper at that time.

Acarerformum · 14/08/2021 23:34

My nana was from Yorkshire, she used to serve Yorkshire pudding, before the rest of Sunday lunch! She made a salad of cucumber, onions, tomatoes and a little bit of lettuce all in vinegar to serve with Sunday lunch, especially with roast beef, she called it wet salad. We all love it.

scoobydoo1971 · 14/08/2021 23:34

As a young child, I played at a friend's house. She had devout Christian parents who were respectable citizens. Her father worked at a local dairy warehouse as a driver. I went in the parents bedroom one time and looked under in the bed, in the wardrobes etc...just being a nosey 7 year old. I couldn't understand, until years later, why they had wholesale crates of long life dairy products stacked up high under the bed, in the cabinets...it was a proper willy wonka factory...until years later when I read in the paper that the Dad had been sent to court for theft...

AbstractEim · 14/08/2021 23:34

At my best friends house, went in the downstairs loo and there was a massive gun leaning against the wall. Her dad was in the TA and I think about to head off to the falklands.

Also the poor kids who lived opposite, their mum was so incredibly house proud. We weren’t ever allowed in in living room as you could only go in there after 8pm. When you used the bathroom sink to wash your hands there was a special towel on the side that you had to use to wipe out the sink so no drops of water were left in it.

pheonixrebirth · 14/08/2021 23:34

[quote NoNotMeNoSiree]@pheonixrebirth cucumber in vinegar sounds like Yorkshire salad!
Perfectly normal (and delish) side dish with a Sunday roast.[/quote]
Yep your right, Yorkshire salad it is!
Served as a starter with Yorkshire puds before the main Sunday roast. It still baffles me but hey ho. At least I'll sleep now.

ilovetomatoes · 14/08/2021 23:35

So many comments about cucumbers in vinegar but nothing about the nazi memorabilia or family porn?!!! Ok….

CuddlyDudley71 · 14/08/2021 23:35

I'm in the Black Country and the cucumber in vinegar is called 'soak'.

adeleh · 14/08/2021 23:36

A homemade lamp made from varnished turkey legs. The legs were the stand.

Whirlywooo · 14/08/2021 23:37

@ilovetomatoes I was thinking that too!

NoNotMeNoSiree · 14/08/2021 23:37

@ilovetomatoes

So many comments about cucumbers in vinegar but nothing about the nazi memorabilia or family porn?!!! Ok….
The Nazi memorabilia makes me think of the Father Ted episode Grin Mental image of Father Jack climbing out of the "whisky" box in full Nazi uniform lol As for the family porn one, there's no words Sad
CatherineMorland · 14/08/2021 23:38

A real Christmas tree (minus most of its needles) complete with decorations and lit fairy lights…in June.

WingingItSince1973 · 14/08/2021 23:39

I really fancy cucumber in vinegar! It's something my dear German friends serves up and delicious.

The weirdest thing I've ever seen, although was normal for me at the time, was my great grandad in the bed in the corner of my nans lounge (anyone who was on deaths door ended up in the bed in the corner of the lounge so my nan could nurse them). Nan, pap and uncles sat eating Sunday dinner watching the TV. I walk in and say hello to great grandad who I assumed was asleep. He was in fact dead and had been for a few hours. They just got on with things while waiting for the undertaker. Was a great house at my nans. Its just how they were back in the late 70s 🤣

Wrongsideofhistorymyarse · 14/08/2021 23:40

Dolls on every available surface

pheonixrebirth · 14/08/2021 23:41

@ilovetomatoes

So many comments about cucumbers in vinegar but nothing about the nazi memorabilia or family porn?!!! Ok….
Probably because so many people do have it or remember family members making it, pretty sure the nazi memorabilia and family porn aren't quite as common thankfully.
SamiReed1 · 14/08/2021 23:42

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transformandriseup · 14/08/2021 23:42

I went to a girls house when I was in primary school and her parents were growing cannabis which they made a bit of money off selling to tourists at the local beaches. I don't think my friend thought it was normal but the family were very open about it.

PricklesTheHedgehog · 14/08/2021 23:43

I remember a house with a huge bear skin on the living room wall including head and bared teeth. It was absolutely terrifying. The child was so proud that her father had shot it.

AdventuresDownRabbitholes · 14/08/2021 23:45

Possibly outing, but until I was about 12 I assumed everyone's grandparents had a taxidermy collection. Having a stuffed polar bear in the lounge was completely normal in my eyes.

I've since inherited one piece of taxidermy, and am merrily continuing the family tradition of acting like it's totally normal, which is great fun when tradesmen come around Grin

AWonderfulNewName · 14/08/2021 23:45

OK, I come from Eastern Europe. There was no porn until the early 90s.
Anyway, the friends of my parents had a VHS player and they would invite their friends over to watch porn together.
My mum told me she found it a bit awkward :D

ParityJ · 14/08/2021 23:46

An ex of mine took me to his friend's house for a "Pizza and a movie night"
2 things happened that night that I thought curious. First of all, they ordered pizza from Dominoes... The set a dining table, put out plates and knives and forks and small glass pots, 2 each, one with tomato sauce and one with BBq sauce in. The delivery came and they used a spatula to serve 2 slices of pizza to each of us. Then they proceeded to sit and use a knife and fork to cut careful pieces out of each slice, carefully dip it into a sauce and eat it. It was odd. Like they thought it was so e really posh expensive person food.
I eat pizza like an animal though tbh, I just pick it up with hands and dunk it and eat it.

The other thing.. I asked for a cup of tea. They didn't keep milk, which is fine, what they did was use a Britta water jug, pour half a jar of Coffee Mate into it, then let cold water filter and mix with the powdered milk. Stir it and use as milk.
It tasted really odd in my tea.

I often think of them and wonder how they are.

Cocolapew · 14/08/2021 23:47

Not me but DH.
When he was younger he went home with a women who was a barmaid in his local.
He asked to use the loo and she asked him if it was a "wee or a poo?". He was a bit Hmm but said a wee. She answered that's ok its just the toilet won't flush poo away.
He did wonder what she did when she had to have a crap and found out the answer when he walked into the bathroom and was faced with the bath full to the brim of carrier bags with shit in them.

SamiReed1 · 14/08/2021 23:47

@Boombadoom

Place marking
@Boombadoom If you click Watch This Thread (which is at the top and at the bottom of the thread) it saves you wasting a post to say that.