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!

few on here will be old enough to remember the horse and carts which did collections from houses but I do. Rag and Bone Men they were called and you knew they were coming as you'd hear their cry "any old rags, any old rags"

we still have a scrap iron man in our area. He drives a pick up now and shouts anyOldIron as he drives up and down the streets.

When I was 15, we had a house with no/poor heating and slept with duvet with loads of blankets on top. I would jump out and put a fan hetaer on in the mornings and then jump back into bed until it was warmThere was ice on the windows in the morning.
When I went off to university, the place I rented had no heating, so we had a gas heater with a bottle of gas and I did the same in the mornings. that was common in student rents.
I went to university in 1985

With coal chutes and rag-and-bone-men making an appearance on this thread, here is something about my own house that was "weird": the back alley, running behind all the houses in the very long Edwardian terrace. Most gardens had a gate leading into this alley, which was narrow, overgrown and rarely used by anybody, and probably enjoyed by the local cats and foxes. There were access passages to this alley between the houses at various points in the terrace, from my road and the adjacent road, but I never saw these being used, ever.

As a teenager I climbed over the gate from our garden (it was padlocked, but nobody knew where the keys were), and walked down this alley as far as I could, before the undergrowth became impassable. I did it regularly one summer, until some neighbours told me off for "invading" it, saying something about it being part of their garden which I didn't understand at the time.

It felt really odd that there was this passage that everyone had access to, but nobody used; rather like the attic tunnel described in The Magician's Nephew. I spent many hours wondering what the purpose of it was once upon a time.

MAFIL
"I used to lie my clothes out at the bottom of the bed at night, then in the morning pull them inside and get dressed under the blankets."

I used to do the same thing. I remember once sneaking into bed in my school uniform thinking I'd undress when I felt a bit warmer and then waking up fully clothed and going to school in the same garb! Eventually we got electric blankets with green shield stamps and they were life changing. Along with my transistor radio on which I would listen to the top 40 and Radio Luxembourg in my newly warm bed.

Steppemum

"I went to university in 1985" you had no heating at uni in 1985. Two of my DC arrived at university halls, Russell group, proper institutions, in 2001 and 2007 respectively, to find completely unheated halls. One was south west and the other in Yorkshire! We had to buy convector heaters for their rooms. Both halls have since been demolished. They were deliriously happy with their grotty accommodation of course!

Fabulous that you still have the "any old iron" man!

I wonder if we will return to the Any-Old-Iron man, the horse drawn milkman with glass bottles, the rag and bone man, etc. When I think back to my 60s childhood it was so much more environmentally friendly.

I used to sing a song about ‘any old iron’ as a kid, but I was born in the 90s? I think my Irish gran taught it me.

Round here we have a scrap man actually who shouts ‘scrap metaaaallll’ from his window as he drives slowly up and down.

You look look sweet
Talk about a treat
You look dapper from your napper to your feet

That one? I imagine it in a London accent.

Think the threads fulll big once I was at my cousins and I used the nail brush after we’d played in the garden.

She said “that’s my dads hair brush”

Many moons ago a butcher would call on my grans street weekly in his small van. He would open up the back of the van and proudly show this weeks special offers, all uncovered, just piled up on plates or dishes; sausages, eggs cooked tongue, heart and all sorts of other delicacies. Whatever u fancied was chucked on the scales then wrapped in a piece of greaseproof paper. Wouldn't be allowed these days, environmental elf n all that.

My grandparents had the coal shed and chamber pots grandad used at night despite having an indoor toilet. I even remember grandma using a mangle for years. When not in use, it was a side table in the kitchen.

Their kitchen drawers contained old paper bags and old string they kept. This was used to tie round the puddings they streamed and for wrapping food. No cling film in those days. The steamed puddings were delicious.

They drank the green water from the cooked vegetables in a mug as their first course along with the Yorkshire pudding. Then they'd eat the
rest of their meat and veg. They were from oop north.

Grandma never wore a pair of trousers in her life. We bought her a pair circa 1990 but it "felt wrong".

Amazing what memories this thread has brought up.

My friend and her sisters were not allowed to watch anything on ITV - only BBC

we still have a scrap iron man in our area. He drives a pick up now and shouts anyOldIron as he drives up and down the streets
I saw a scrap iron man recently. He had a loudspeaker on top of the cab and played the song 'Any old iron' via an iPhone.

I used to get dressed in bed too (late 60s) because of the icy cold bedroom. If my Dad found out I'd get told off because I couldn't have washed properly, the bathroom was freezing, though, and obviously there was no shower. My parents got central heating put in when I was 17 although, inexplicably, they didn't get a radiator put in the bathroom so it was still freezing. I left home at 18 so didn't get long to appreciate the rest of the house being warmer.

@Stinkycatbreath I’ve thought of Franco often since this thread, and despite not having direct morales to tell to, I have decided that “and it was spoken. According to Franco” is what I am going to end my Aesop’s style tales with. Long live Franco! I recall similar, but do not hold much hope
Xx

My childhood was pretty neglectful so my mum didn’t mind us staying with other kids who lived in shit holes.

One sibling group who my sister and I were friends with used old flora tubs for bowls and when it came to dinner time they’d go off to the pub, see their mum who would give them a quid and they’d get loads of cheap crap to eat like 10p crisps. I remember having to hide from the debt collectors and giggling our heads off. I actually felt more comfortable at their house than my other friends.

Something I don’t get is our house was awful, cat and dog shit everywhere, no cooker, hoover or washing machine, but my mum still let me have friends over, surely she would have known how awful the house was. Whereas I was quite immune to it.

The number of homes with cat and dog shit everywhere is just horrible.

How and why and when could anyone feel that it is acceptable to have shit everywhere?

@Sharpandshineyteeth I think some people grow immune to how bad their living conditions are. Sure they can see it is more messy than others people's houses, but don't realise just how bad it is.

Not really weird but unusual. I had a friend who lived in an old house (18th century terrace in a cotswold village) and there was a deep deep well, narrow circumference but very deep. With bars over the top (small children in the home) and they had put goldfish in it. I was quite little then and I aske dmy friend "how deep is it?" She was like "it has no bottom, if you fall in you will DIE!" It was kinda beautiful but kind of creepy

A home where the father would walk around naked in front of family and sometimes wear pyjamas at breakfast with fly undone- you could see a hairy sausage! gross!!

cobblersandhogwash

I do wonder if hoarding disorders are more common than we realise. No sane person would be OK with conditions like that.

Hoarding disorders? Letting cat and dog shit lie around is classed as a hoarding disorder?

cobblersandhogwash Sorry, got the wrong person. My comment was meant to be response to someone further upthread who was talking about houses where there was junk everywhere and clutter.

Oh wow raspberry that brings back memories.....greenshield stamps! I had forgotten all about them. I can't even remember where you got then from but I can remember licking them and sticking them to some kind of card or book, and looking through the catalogue to see what you clould get. All the best stuff needed about a billion of course - I wonder if anyone ever saved enough?! Then I think you had to wait for weeks for your items to arrive in the post.
My mum also collected stamos from the Co-op which I think just got you money off your shopping. She had a membership card and used to get a "dividend" every year, which I think was actual money, like shareholders in a business get. I don't suppose it was much though! I used to enjoy sticking all the stamps in. No idea why as the glue tasted vile and was probably made of something disgusting. I think it was because I felt like I was being useful, plus my Mum would sometimes buy me some sweets as a special treat when she gave the stamps in. Getting a packet of Opal Fruits or Spangles to share with my sister was a really exciting treat. Most of today's kids would think that it was crazy to spend hours gluing stamps to a card in the hope of a reward of half a packet of sweets!

I still have a Pyrex bowl and pudding basin (the larger bowl broke years ago) that I bought with Green Shield stamps in the early 70s.

Wherethecowsgobong - if it was 'bottomless' how did it have goldfish in it? Can't picture it!

Fascinating thread, my fave was catching the parents settling down in front of teletubbies!

@Jiggles101
my fave was catching the parents settling down in front of teletubbies

I loved that one too!