Things you assumed were normal

[meredithgrey1]

DH bought some weetabix to have for breakfast a few days ago and I was amazed to see him preparing it by just pouring cold milk on and then eating it like that! I can't eat weetabix now but when I was little my mum would pour the milk on, then microwave it, then mash the biscuits in to create something similar to porridge. I assumed at the time that this was the only way to eat weetabix but my husband was appalled at the very idea and after a quick google it does seem like I'm very much in the minority. So it got me thinking, what are some things that you thought were normal, but then you realised that you/your family were the only one(s) doing it like that?

[dogsdinnerlady]

Naked Weetabix with milk, no sugar is just about the healthiest breakfast cereal there is. As kids we buttered ours then dunked the buttery side in the sugar bowl. Teeth now bear evidence.

[sueelleker]

I love toast that's gone cold and then been buttered
Me too-hot toast goes so soggy when the butter melts into it.

[Inherdefence]

@GurlwiththeCurl. I was born in the 60s and that was normal for us too. Not only was it one bath a week, it was one bath a week with shared bath water. In fact we only had hot water to bath in once a week. In pre central heating days hot water for washing up was generated by a gas heater over the sink (an Ascot) that heated it up as it ran. The bath water was heated by an electric immersion heater. It was expensive to run and necessitated saving up extra shillings for the meter. Its controls could only be touched by adults and it was turned on for baths on Sundays and Christmas Eve only

[petrocellihouse]

Apple and sugar butties. Apple thinly sliced, then sprinkled with granulated sugar, squished down between two slices of white bread. Heaven! Oh, and it had to have Adams butter on it, which at the time (mid sixties) came in a striped yellow box!

[sueelleker]

I use grated cheese, and bind it with an egg. Goes nice and fluffy when you grill it. Cheese slices tend to just melt off the toast.

[thegreylady]

I was born in 1944 and one bath a week was normal. We had an immersion heater and it was expensive to run. On Saturdays I had first bath then dad used the same water (he went to the pub every Saturday night). Mum would then empty and clean the bath and refill it for herself. I remember bath salts were her favourite gift all her life. Dad always said to me,”You haven’t weed in that water have you?”
I didn’t even see a shower except at the swimming baths until I went to college in 1962. We were allowed 4 showers or 3 baths a week and had to sign a rota for times and days. Everyone wanted Saturday.

[whatdoyouthinkyouknow]

You just made me laugh at a memory OP.

Years ago (1980's) I had a long term boyfriend. I'd spent the night at his house and in the morning he'd brought me breakfast in bed.

He'd served me (with great pride) what I can only describe as a steaming pile of weetabix! It looked rather suspicious. He had only ever had it the way you had, mashed into hot milk to form a thick porridge.

The look of horror on my face really confused him and he asked if I meant it when I said I liked weetabix.

He too had not seen it served with cold milk and sugar (the way I eat it).

[OopsPregnantAgain]

Ribena with milk (aka blackcurrant milkshake). ALWAYS drank it like that when I was young and was horrified when I was first given it with water...

Ooh I'm gonna try this!

[Deathraystare]

We, my grandparents (both sets) and my aunt all had black cats. I thought that black was the standard cat colour that, I don’t know, you got issued by the government and that you had to pay extra for an exotic coloured cat.



That is mad! Though perhaps all around you (outside your own family) were mainly black cats. Very common when I was young was black and white cats. Even more common than tabbies. Ours was a beautiful tortie - well, tortie and white (calico?). I actually did not see any black cats until we moved - when I was 10. Now the poor sods are very common and people are put off by superstition etc etc.

[AquaAquaAir]

On a diet, I used to take tinned tomatoes to heat up and eat with lunch, everyone was appalled.
Also when I ate a grapefruit. “ you’re eating that like you would an orange ?” Err yes.
When I was a kid, at a friends house she ate a soup bowl ( large) full of baked beans, with loads of vinegar added, with some toast.
I was horrified, but said nothing, and I was given the same. ( a whole tin )
Turns out that baked beans are delicious in huge quantities, and with any vinegar, malt or my favourite cider vinegar, are delicious, and the vinegar seems to counteract the downside of beans.

I love marmite, with coleslaw on bread, and my children think, marmite, with crunchy peanut butter, and salad cream on bread is odd 😂😂😂

[MilkTrayLimeBarrel]

As a child, a 'treat' was to have cocoa powder and caster sugar mixed together in a small dish and eat it dry!! How weird is that - but cheap I suppose! I loved raw jelly cubes but my mother always stopped me eating them as she said they would 'gum up my insides'!!

I had to have malt and cod liver oil every morning before school - with a Haliborange to take the taste away - I thought everybody had this until I stayed with a friend!

[Damntheman]

I eat the whole apple too, a result of living in London where there are no bins and not wanting to carry a manky core around! The pips do have minimal traces of cyanide in but it's fine. You probably shouldn't bite them but just swallowing them won't hurt you unless you decide for some reason to eat an absolute truck load of just apple pips.

[nornironrock]

When I was small, my grandad didn't have a toaster, so the grill above the hob was used for toast. One day, as a (unknown to me) joke, he asked if I wanted my toast done one side or two. I said one! For years, I genuinely thought on-sided toast was a normal thing that was simply one of two options.... It seems I was the only one eating one-sided toast, and my family thought it was pretty funny.
.

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

My Mother's family are a bit quirky so there are lots of things that they do that I always knew were not what everyone else did (pre-Christmas Christmas dinner and presents for instance), but some things are genuinely better so my Dad has also taken to doing them and I thought those things were normal for everyone. I was very surprised that nobody else mashes fresh strawberries, cream and sugar with fork before eating them with a spoon. (It really does taste better.)

[BillHadersNewWife]

Mabel what are Doric words?

[Inherdefence]

I worked with someone who always sprinkled salt on her apples as she ate them (she tells me it’s the normal thing to do in her home country of Jamaica). After months of watching her in fascinated horror I gave it a try and it was delicious. However, even though I now know how much tastier it makes an apple I just can’t bring myself to repeat it.

When I met DH he was amazed that I always salted tomatoes before eating them or adding them to a salad - I’m equally amazed that other people don’t do this.

[AquaAquaAir]

Christmas lunch with a boyfriends large Yorkshire family. Huge Yorkshire puddings and delicious gravy served all around to everyone, ( there was twelve or more of us)
Then the plates were all taken back and washed so Christmas lunch could be served on them.
It was surprising, but delicious.

[Witchend]

@itsgoodtobehome

Crosses at the end of the sprouts are to check they haven't gone off. Sometimes they can be rotten inside, and you won't know until you bit into them because the outside leaves are fine. By cutting a cross in the bottom you can feel as the knife goes in if it's rotten.
My granny taught me that.
I don't do it though.

[karala]

Bill reference.yourdictionary.com/translation/list-of-doric-words-and-english-translations.html

[Wildthyme]

@BillHadersNewWife Doric is dialect of the North East of Scotland, especially in Aberdeenshire.

"Ay fit like" means how are you? for example.

[echt]

When my mother made apple pies, with Bramleys, we would eat the peel dipped in sugar, a dentine-stripping combination.

Our teeth!!!

[Clangus00]

@echt I loved sticks of garden rhubarb with a poke (bag) of sugar to dip it in. Yes, raw rhubarb and sugar.
Or a buttered white sandwich with sugar sprinkled over the butter.

[LittleTopic]

OP I’m with you. My mum always did us weetabix got with a bit of cinnamon in.

Tried to do it myself recently and got the weetabix/milk ratio wrong and ended up with a lumpy mess

Do you remember the raisin ones?!

[LittleTopic]

Hot, not got...

[HerRoyalFattyness]

Choc ice and chips.
It's delicious.