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

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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.

@AdventuresDownRabbitholes

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

Also the look on my landlord's face when he was inspecting, turned around and came face to face with a large bit of taxidermy. Don't think he was expecting that

@pheonixrebirth do people have to relate to it to comment? I found those quite shocking and they stood out way more than some take about pickled cucumbers.

When I was about 14 I was round a friend's at lunchtime. We had a cup-a-soup and bread. Her dad absolutely bollocked us as he "needs them to make gravy", I said "but it's minestrone" and he said he sieved them

Also had a friend who wasn't allowed to wash when on her period, this would have been 2005 ish.

Another friend had ducks living loose in the conservatory.

@Doublestar
That sounds really disturbing to me. I bet if he told anyone it would be flagged as abusive.

Did their parents know she had a jar of pee and was kissing him?

Not quite the same thing but a friend came round and went to use our bathroom. I heard her scream and went running to help. The kids had left toy plastic crabs in the bath and she thought I was keeping real crabs in my bath. They looked quite realistic but she must have subconsciously thought I was the type to bathe with crustaceans.

@NoNotMeNoSiree I know. How does someone have all this nazi stuff? And a teen talking about watching porn with family? Both pretty upsetting and disturbing

@pheonixrebirth my mom used to serve cucumber and onion thinly sliced in a bowl of vinegar (back in the 80s) and I bloody love it! Haven't had it in years - Middle-England

Once went to a clients’ house for a consultation and they were naturists and had the entire entrance hall, up the stairs walls ( iyswim) covered in the family and I guess naturist pals doing normal stuff but with no clothes on! They wanted a website showcasing naturism. I declined the commission because some of their chosen pictures were of their dc nude and they couldn’t understand that I was worried about how the pictures might be used/ child safeguarding etc etc they told me I was weird …. The house was full of naturist pictures … bizarre

Rabbit pie for tea at my friends house. I'd be about 8. They had 6 children, not much cash, and an allotment on which they grew veg and kept "pet" rabbits!

...I've been a vegetarian for a very long time!

Not mine and very ild now, but the poo knife story.

www.originalpoopknife.com/pages/the-story-of-the-poop-knife

A stuffed baboon sitting on a tree stump. The owner had shot it in Africa.

[quote TrueRefuge]@IncludeWomenInThePrequel WT actual F???? Are you serious???

Where did the clowns go when the parents went to bed? And did you eat dinner with the clowns, or were they moved?

Just, so many questions!

An obvious one being, do you now have nightmares about clowns?[/quote]
I, too, need to know more about the life sized clowns.

In addition to Truerefuge’s questions:

• why FOUR life-sized clowns in the house, two at the dining table and two in bed? Did they sleep in shifts?

• were they all dressed identically? Did they each have different outfits in a ‘clown wardrobe’?

[quote ilovetomatoes]@pheonixrebirth do people have to relate to it to comment? I found those quite shocking and they stood out way more than some take about pickled cucumbers.[/quote]
Obviously anyone can comment on what they want to whether they relate or not. And it go's without saying that nazi memorabilia and porn are clearly more shocking. The cucumber thing just seems to have jogged a few posters fond memories and set me straight that it's a pretty common thing.

@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.

I’m guessing you’re not British 🤣

@pheonixrebirth we didn't have any Nazi memorabilia or porn but my mum (who grew up in Devon) did used to put a bit of vinegar on cucumber, she said it stopped the cucumber going dry (I guess in the days before people used to put olive oil etc on salad, much cheaper?). It wasn't part of our Sunday meal though, just what she did when making a salad.

My friends/yard where I kept my horsewere originally farmers - just for context.
She had a couple of sheep and a lamb was born. It was put into the field but got itself caught in th (wrong, I'm sorry to say....) fencing. Brought into the Dutch barn to be safer, but a fox got to it.
I went into the kitchen a couple of days later and to the fridge to get milk for coffee.

The dead lamb fell out at my feet!

Not very excitingly unusual but a large, expensive home where all the sofas were kept and used in plastic wrap.
And my friend's house where the loo brush had been used and put back completely caked. What kind of foul and mad person thinks they need to clean that off a toilet bowl but not off a brush in a plastic container next to it? Insanity.

[quote halesie]@pheonixrebirth we didn't have any Nazi memorabilia or porn but my mum (who grew up in Devon) did used to put a bit of vinegar on cucumber, she said it stopped the cucumber going dry (I guess in the days before people used to put olive oil etc on salad, much cheaper?). It wasn't part of our Sunday meal though, just what she did when making a salad.[/quote]
I think that's what baffles me more, the reason/origin of it. To preserve the cucumber makes sense to me but who decided one day that cucumbers and vinegar would be the perfect accompaniment to Yorkshire puds/roast dinner? And clearly it's not just a regional thing if people as far as Europe remember it.

In retrospect it was the family with five kids living in a not massive house (everyone sharing rooms). They just had one living room and it couldn’t be used because the dad had covered the whole sodding thing in computers he was doing up. It wasn’t his job or anything, just a hobby. Seemed normal at the time but looking back it was mad and so antisocial - if the kids weren’t eating dinner they had to be in their bedrooms as there wasn’t anywhere else to be.

A former work colleague of mine had a collection of shop mannequins standing / sitting around his house.

@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.

What's weird about that?! Gosh, that brings back memories and I want some! 😋

The duckling. My very lovely friend can't help herself from 'rescuing' wildlife and found an abandoned duckling which she took home to tend. It was very happy in the garden and the bath. Bit weird when I first went to her house and it watched me go to the loo...

But she worried that it might not be ok without her, so every time she had to come out for work events, she brought the duckling. In a bucket. We were supposed to be holding a VERY serious conference with all sorts of visiting academics doing powerpoint presentations in front of a very serious audience. At every small silence, you could hear the gentle quacks of the duckling as it rotated itself around a bucket at the front of the room.

A friend at school had a house rabbit who pooped everywhere and tried to have sex with its toy ball all the time - I used to call it the ‘ball-bonking-bunny’. One time when I was at her house for a sleepover we had to get up early so we could go with her parents to queue up at Argos at 8am before it opened.

@adeleh

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