To ask what the weirdest thing you experienced or saw at someone else's house when you were a child?

[BillHadersNewWife]

Inspired by a Reddit thread...there were some absolutely weird things that people experienced or saw at their mates' houses as children.

There was a man who said he hated eating at his friend's house because they weren't allowed to drink water with a meal.

There was someone who said their friend wasn't allowed in any other room but the kitchen and their bedroom.

That kind of thing! I'm thinking myself and can't really dredge much up. There was one friend who lived in a huge mansion...think National Trust style place...and it was empty!

Just room after room with less furniture in the place than in an average semi!

Normal-ish family...I think they were broke due to having 5 kids and privately educating them all!

My goodness, this thread is comedy gold.

Two from when I was aged about eight:

1. I went round to play with a boy from school called Adam and he locked me in his wardrobe. Can’t remember why I’d climbed into it in the first place but I never went round his house again.

2. My friend Karen, her two sisters and I were sitting in her lounge when her dad came in and went apeshit, yelling and thrashing around with his belt while the four of us just scarpered in whichever direction we could. Thankfully I didn’t get hit by his belt. Can’t recall what exactly that was about but the image is ingrained. My DH would never behave so violently in front of four young girls...

sharing fish and chips?! Oh no, no, no, this is not allowed!

we had ice on the inside of our bedroom windows

As did we. Me bed was next to the window - and I mean "next to" as in pushed up against.

I woke up on a number of occasions to find that my hair had frozen onto the window.

@Footiefan1979
Close to East lancs certainly

Ice on the inside of the windows was completely normal in my childhood.

Here's an experience I had at someone else's house which I really liked, aged about six or seven, but lots of people I've mentioned it to think it was really strange, so here it is. In this house, there were lots of pictures of hot air balloons, and they offered me a flight in the "magic balloon" in their garden. They told me that it would only work if my eyes were covered, and the magic would happen in my mind; to help me, they got me to watch a short video of what the view from a balloon looked like, especially when taking off.

They asked me if I still wanted a ride: I eagerly said yes, so they took me into the middle of the very long garden, where I was blindfolded. They made sure I couldn't see anything, spun me round and took me to near the house, got me to feel the back door, and the basket (probably a big laundry basket), and lifted me into it. I felt it being lifted it into the air, and the mum gave a commentary, saying things like "you're going up... up... the houses and fields are all tiny underneath you!" I could feel the basket moving, and the mum's voice sounded very quiet, as if it was far below me. I couldn't see a thing, and it felt as if I really was flying!

The icing on the cake was when I "landed". They lifted me out of the basket, they asked me where I thought I was. I said near the house, as I believed I had taken off from there; but when they took the blindfold off, I was amazed to discover that I was at the other end of the garden, a very long way from the house, and I believed I had "flown" from one end to the other! I didn't find out until much later how they had done this bit of magic.

I remember this whole thing vividly, and I loved it, but lots of people think it's a very weird game to play!

I think it’s lovely!

@Footiefan2019
I am from a small town off the East Lancs road beginning with L. We had soup and chips!

BillHadersWife. What a lovely memory! I'm so gutted that I didn't get to know my grandmother, my grandad never got over it and neither did my dad and his siblings.

When I was young ( in the '60's) we went to mill road to have a look. It was still a bomb site and it was so sad. My dad made good though, he got a really good job and we moved out of the slums of Scotland Road to a lovely semi just off the East Lancs road. My grandad was so proud of his son.

I miss them both so much.

My uncle lived on a farm that specialised in artificial insemination of cows. I used to love going into the shed with the 'machine that made the bulls roar' to watch the bulls
Was only later I realised that it was basically a bull wanking machine!

My sister and I went to a neighbour's house when we were young and the kids asked if we wanted to see their little brother, which we thought was a baby, but turned out to be an urn under their parents bed and pictures of their sibling who had died. I was bemused at the time but now find it very sad.
I think food is the weirdest thing about other people's houses. I went to my best friend's house in primary school and was given a full stick of celery filled with cream cheese for lunch. I hated celery (still do) and cream cheese. Looking back now I think the mum was always on a diet. My mother is Irish and we always had huge plates of hearty food like stew, spag bol or just meat and potatoes. I was shocked that they thought this was food

Massive steel garden gate bolted to the walls between the living room and dining room with a padlock on.

Also a room dedicated to Elvis, every inch of the walls covered with pictures ect.. The dad also had his hair like him too and wore shirts with the collar up.

Friends relative made me toast over the fire in the living room thought it was weird at first but it tasted amazing with best butter.

Very outing but my mums friend had a printed out picture stuck up with tape of starving children in Africa holding empty bowls above the dining table

*Saltnpepper5" my cousin had a floor to ceiling metal gate between the kitchen and the hall because their rescue rottweiler ate the wooden one while they were out! There was only a strip attached to the top hinge where she couldn't reach left.
Had to be padlocked as the dog could open the latch!

@kerkyra oxo cubes for lunch, is that you Jane?

When we went round to my friend's for tea as kids we had to eat standing in the kitchen with plates on the washing machine. We weren't allowed in the immaculate dining room.

I was the youngest of 3, with all the other mums and dads having just 2 children, so was delighted when a new family moved in nearby and they had just one child, a girl my age. We played in her garden a lot and sometimes her mum would ask me if I wanted a sandwich for lunch, and my friend was able to choose what sort
I crossed my fingers tightly that she'd choose salad and salad cream - the best We weren't given a choice at home.
When we were about 10, the mum, who worked nights in a factory, had another child, a baby boy. He was very brown cos he'd got something called 'jaundice',poor love. They moved shortly that, so I lost my only friend
Fast forward 10-12 years and I was out for a walk with a friend and outside a house I met my old friend! It was lovely to catch up with her, and she called over a boy who was playing football. "You remember C. don't you?" she asked. C. was half Jamaican.

I went to my friend's house and she had a stick in the bathroom. When I asked her what it was for, she said it was to chop up poos that were too big to flush! I started laughing and her cousin popped her head round the door and said 'Oh, you've seen the shit stick then?'.

Another friend had a very stict christian family. They were very controlling, very restrictive. She was not allowed to buy her own clothes in case they were too revealing, had to wear her school uniform on non-uniform days so she wouldn't 'flaunt herself'. She couldn't attend the sexual education classes. Was not allowed to use tampons etc. Her mum would fly into a rage about the slightest thing. One day when we were about 14 she persuaded me to go to their church with them. I was taken aback when I saw my friend, she was caked in make up. Bright red lipstick, thick eyeshadow, dark pink cheeks. Apparantly her mum was ok with this. My friend eventually cut all contact with her family and converted to Islam.

Another friend had a nice house, she was the only person I knew who had a bidet. And fancy lights that could be switched on and off by clapping. She showed me her garage and they had a pig in it. It wasn't a pet.

I thought my upbringing was very normal, but when I saw a couple of my brother's friends in a nightclub once, they talked about how insane our house used to be because we had rabbits running about in it. I barely even remember this. We used to let them run loose in the garden, and if I recall, they did sometimes end up in the house, but I didn't think this was so strange. One of them quipped that he liked our house because we always had tasty raisins everywhere.

Our cat used to sit at the dining room table with us at mealtimes. At first it was funny, then it just became normal and we stopped thinking about it. If we ever had anyone round for tea they would be sat at the end because the cat's seat was next to me.

We went to stay with our former neighbours when I was about 5 - they had a daughter the same age. I remember her parents locking us in a dark garage with no light source at all 'to play' - weird. I screamed the place down. The girl is now a famous CEO!

All my friends were from average families so nothing much to report. It was probably my family which was the strange one.

When I was 10/11, I stayed at my friend's house. She lived with her mum and brother. My friend told me that when her mum had gone out to walk the dog one morning, a stranger had crept into the house and flashed his penis at her, then had ran away. I was petrified but never asked if they had contacted the police - not sure if my friend even reported this to anyone...

Remembered another one last night.. Meals in my parents’ house were always small of portion (we weren’t poor, but they were post war babies). If we ever had baked beans, it was only ever one small tin between the 3 of us. My mind was totally blown when I went to a friend’s house and was given a whole tin of beans to myself! We also never had waste or leftovers, as my mum was very careful to cook only what was needed, and food was always plated in the kitchen. I think we may have been the weird house, as whenever we had potatoes (like with a roast) she would ask everybody how many they wanted when she was peeling them, and she would only cook exactly that number. The first time I visited a friend where food was served family style and I was offered seconds was amazing!

Why did so many Gran's take to their beds pre-sixties. I would very often go to friends houses, and their Gran's beds were downstairs, and placed by the window, so they could see all the comings and goings.
My husband said, an old man who lived by him used to have his bed by the downstairs window, and wave and chat to everyone.

Perhaps they'd moved in with the family and there weren't any spare bedrooms. Maybe it was easier to look after them there with easier access to the downstairs or, quite likely, outside loo.

My friend came to mine for tea once (we were both about aged 6). We were all sat eating dinner with my siblings and parents and she announced that after 9pm mummy and daddy lock the front door, close the curtains and daddy tries mummy’s clothes on.