I had a really close friend growing up that I've grown apart from over the years. We still catch up and see each other from time to time, but it's nothing like it was in our youth when we were inseparable. I would go over his house almost every weekend or he would come to mine, but 7 times out of 10 it was likely at his house. Every single time I went over, something odd or weird had occurred or was taking place, that his family assumed was completely normal and had no problem with, but to most people would be completely bizarre. A few gems that I distinctly remember (an important note is that this family's house was very clean otherwise): -One time my friends dad had bought 700 of those balsa wood model airplanes. They were delivered on a pallet and sat in his garage. When I asked why, the reply I got was "Just because." And that was the end if it. They sat there for 3 years, unopened until one day I went over and they were all gone. My friend had no idea what happened to them. -Their downstairs toilet didn't have a seat on it. So to poop you either had to sit on the rim or squat over it. They still don't have a seat on it 10 years later. I brought it up and my friend said they haven't fixed it because his "dad's really busy." -They had a hutch full of rabbits in their backyard. One spring when the female gave birth, they brought the babies inside since they figured it was still too cold out. The babies were quickly forgotten about and all died. The corpses were left in their basement in a orange painters bucket for 2 years. Their dog would come over and nibble on the corpses every now and then. Focus: What weird things do your friends or family do at their houses that they think is completely ordinary? Alt Focus: What do you do that other people might think is weird or have been called out for?
I had a good friend growing up whose parents would make us comb their carpet so it wasn't all flat. We'd laugh about it but there we were, taking a big ass comb to their carpet so it stood up so pretty. And then we'd walk on it and ruin it. The only thing I can think of is they didn't have a TV so maybe they thought it would keep us busy. This is also the same family where the mom kept running her foot up my leg during breakfast. Pretty sure it was meant for her husband sitting next to me so I kept trying to slide to the side so she'd realize but the damn foot kept following me. Thinking back on it my inner monologue when it happened was pretty amusing.
Focus: I had a friend growing up whose family used butter as their main condiment on everything. EVERYTHING. The highlight (or rock bottom?) was coming over one time to see my friend's little brother just licking a stick of butter, like it was a lollipop. Alt-Focus: My family moved from Illinois to Minnesota in 1991, so we were brought up thinking stuff like squirrels and carp were fine to eat like my parents were. Not like we did it all the time, but we wouldn't refuse it. Eventually I found out that wasn't the case for, oh, everyone else I knew up here.
Our across-the-street neighbours when I was growing up were from the Isle of Mann. Good people, but odd. For breakfast, they grilled kippers on the porch. The dad had no issues asking his 8 year old daughter to move the car for him. But my favourite was their basement. I'll see your "no toilet seat", Juice - and raise you "No walls". The dad was handy enough to have done all the plumbing and installed a toilet where they intended to put a bathroom, but hadn't actually built a room around said toilet. So, there's a toilet surrounded by four pillars that sectioned off their alleged bathroom. But the toilet worked - and it was not uncommon to walk downstairs to see their dad taking a piss into the open-air bathroom.
I had a friend in high school who lived in a beautiful Victorian house that was constantly falling apart and no one fixed anything for the 5 years they lived there. The kitchen floor had three random tiles of linoleum and everything else was just the hardwood floor covered in the glue that holds the linoleum down and dog hair. They lived with two dogs and three cats, but no one ever trained the dogs not to shit in the house. The only person in the house who had a bed was her mom, everyone else slept on mattresses on the floor. You couldn't lock the bathroom door because it would not unlock. They had a huge claw-footed tub that you had to fill from the sink because it did not have a faucet or a shower. The sad thing was that these people were not poor. Her mom would go on vacation on a whim, Her brother bought a new car every couple of months, her sister was constantly buying clothes, she kept buying musical instruments that she was lose interest in a week later, and her little brother had three different gaming systems. They just never thought to fix anything in the house.
I moved to a small town as a freshman. It only took a few days to realize the neighbors were strange. They were 4 kids living with mom. In a two bed one bath house. Two oldest boys in their late 20s, a daughter about 8 and another son about 5. On my first day of school I walked past their house and watched the oldest two "practice" their samurai skills which was just them smacking sticks together. The young ones were home schooled but Tully they played outside all day. I went in their house once. My friend hung out with then when he would get stoned. He decided to skip practice one day so a couple members of the team knocked on their door. I'll never forget what I saw. Newspapers stacked to the ceiling creating a maze around the house. With red arrows pointing the way to the basement. We took a wrong turn into the moms room where she sat up in the bed eating spaghetti (she was easily 250 lbs and sauce all over her night gown and face. She pointed us in the right direction and when we got to or teammate we all just asked "what's with the maze?" And they said, shit you not "warriors share no secrets." It was fucked up.