Utterly insane things your parents did when you were growing up

[GetOrf]

My gran thought that liquid paraffin applied to my skin as achild would stop me from burning (in the tropics). God knows why she thought that. I stank! And was wary of lit cigarettes. Needless to say it didn't work and I fried.

She bought a 6 foot long chest freezer from a shop which was going bust, and put it in the hallway. Our house looked like Iceland (Kerry Katona, not volcano) when you walked in. She bought half a cow from a local farmer to put in the deep freeze. We could have had fillet steak, but no, she kept that for best (?) and we ate the offal. Never did eat that fillet steak, it was probably still in the freezer when she died.

Would refuse to pay the council to remove old ovens or whatever, so would wait until the dead of night, we would dress up like burglars and would fly tip the oven (by hoiking it over a 6 foot wall into allotments, or shioving it down a rough path and pushing it into the sea over the harbour wall). Ilfracombe residents of the 80s - that oven on the beach in August was mine.

Same happened with hanging baskets - she would refuse to buy Busy Lizzies or lobelias or whatever to make her hanging baskets, so we would sneak into municipal parks at dead of night and nick 'em.

What eccentric or frankly insane things did your parents or guardians do?

Fifis25StottieCakes, did you live next door to me?

When you say the neighbors loved you, do you mean they shouted at you and told you off if your were naughty? (But also gave you a slice of cake if you were polite)?

I was always the first one to be called in when the street lights came on

Yes, we are still a bit like that here with each others kids. Its still not as good as being a child of the 80's though

I seen it on facebook the other day and it made me smile

Hmmm.....I was very familiar with cowpats as a child, despite being a townie. My children don't seem to have the same relationship with them.

Winkyslink, I think your dad was most sensible to have ropes to hold onto in the van, did you use them to swing yourselves around on good corners?

In my father's case,invite random men he befriended in pubs back to our home,so that they wouldn't have to pay for a hotel,or because their partners had thrown them out, only to go to work the next day,leaving my mother and myself,toddler age,alone with them.
The most memorable occasion being when he brought a Dutch man home one night,who turned out to be a murder suspect.

Oh the cowpats! Crispy on the top and super gooey inside

Have you ever stepped in one with bare feet?

The splinter thing worked differently in my parents' house - my dad allowed me to dig out his splinters with a needle. It sounds quite brave or stupid to allow your 6 year old to do this, but neither my father or mother's eyesight was good enough. I got proficient fairly quickly.
My father used to wear an ancient coat to carry out any tasks around the house, a posh friend asked me if he was the gardener.

We went for a drive in the countryside most weekends, and my father always took a stove and cooked up a meal of bacon and eggs. once we cleared up and noticed a sign warning of the dangers of forest fires - we all laughed. The notion that we might cause some damage was never considered.

I have just been giggling like fuck at the half head fringe, and the mum with the trike

My dad used to pay me to load ammunition in the 1970s - by the time I was 10 I knew how to smelt lead and pour it into bullet moulds, prime and load the ammo them pack into into boxes ready for use by the police. I would earn a penny a round!

I still find primers between the floorboards in the attic rooms we used for reloading and when DH and I bought this house from my parents in the early 2000s and had the place rewired, the electrician found several bags of live ammo buried in the sand in the crawlspace under the house

Bigredtractor, I would just like to point out that my pathetic DH still does the honk and wave game, especially to the female of young couples....

Drive to Spain, for our first holiday abroad, in a Ford Cortina (with Vinyl seats). Twas a 2 day drive, in intense heat, and all our bums stuck to the plastic car seats.

MrsRhettButler Cowpats - not bare feet but my new Easter Sandals. yuk

I had a friend who had that half head fringe hair cut. It wasn't her mum that did it - but a 'hairdresser' who came round their house.

I have doubts about this hairdresser!

The driving to your holiday remins me of driving to Italy from East Anglia in a pick up truck. (just WHY?!)

MandaHugNKiss that song is one of the MANY versions of There was an old woman, all skin and bones.

I had crap parents so didn't have any fun stuff however, I seem to be making up for it with my friends children (The Cub is a bit young yet) I tell them wind comes from wind farms amongst other things.

Nearly forgot my father was a long distance lorry driver and would sometimes invite hitchikers back to the house I now think it was become they were swingers!

StoringUpSomeOfTheThingsHereForTheCubTiggaxx

Ive actually got a school photo of me with a pudding bowl cut and half my fringe missing.

I can remember going to the shop daily for 20 berkley superkings with a note....at 6

Yes, 40 Peter Styvesens from the sweet shop...

When Mum and Dad went out on a night out, we had this 'routine' where we'd ask who was coming to babysit us.

He used to jovially tell my sister and I, aged about 5 and 7 it was the Boston Strangler, the Yorshire Ripper....and later on it was Jeffrey Dahmer.

Oh and we knew exactly what those men did...he used to read us passages from his books as bedtime reading!!!

Have a guess what my sister studies...yep, Criminology

We used to go out in the car for picnics (probably only about 10 miles from home) and my parents used to take a little camping stove, kettle, teapot, cups & saucers and a washing up bowl. Yes, they made us all cups of tea then washed up afterwards.

my parents were due to go on a business trip (one of those 70s style being schmoozed for business type trips ie a free holiday) but their baby-sitter fell through at the last minute. The hotel in Germany was full - and couldn't fit my brothers in, so, for some rather bizarre reason, they ended up staying in a sailors' refuge type place. My parents went off for their posh dinner on the saturday night and left my brothers (who must have been maximum aged 8 and 6 because I wasn't born) in the company of a load of random sailors drinking rum. but hey. this was the 70s and that's what you did.

crying with laughter. I thought i was the only one whose mum was a bit bonkers.

The fringe was huge. It went from just behind one ear, right across to the other ear.

My mum still insists that's how all little girls had their hair in the early to mid eighties, but they bloody didn't.

Made very elaborate medieval costumes for themselves and wandered around my school summer fair.

Dad's tights had a codpiece.

No but they all had huge crimped pony tails with crimpers that would overheat and cremate your hair