Friends with weird parents
Discussion
Now that I'm in my 30's, this isn't really an issue anymore, but I was reminiscing this evening about the weird parents some of my friends had when I was at school and in my 20's.
One of my mates lived in quite a nice townhouse type properly, and despite know him for years during my late teens and twenties, I never ever met his parents once. No one I knew had ever met them. If you went round to his house he would have to stand and talk to you in the hallway, and very occasionally the kitchen... but never any further into the house. His parents would always be in 'the study' or the living room, and never once said hello. Or showed their faces. Ever. He admitted years later that he never let any of us come up to his room as his parents didn't like having anyone in the house, and that his bedroom was still decorated in the style of a child's bedroom and they wouldn't change it for him, or allow him to change it. It remained that way until he moved out aged about 27. I don't think he ever brought any girls home to see his bedroom...
My parents were always welcoming and generous when I had friends over, offering drinks, asking them if they would like to stay for dinner etc. But I remember another friends parents not being generous or welcoming in the slightest. We would never even get offered a glass of water when we were round there, which we frequently were. The situation came to a head one day when on a summers afternoon we asked our mate for a drink, he rummaged in the kitchen and handed us a Capri-Sun each. Great. Until his mum came in from work, looked in the fringe, exploded and then screamed at the top of her voice that she "didn't go shopping in order to provide drinks for his friends". Really quite awkward.
Then there was the girl who I was friendly with who invited me to her house after school. Upon arriving at her house, I found the interior of it looked like the set of a period drama from the early 1900's, and her parents had a combined age of approaching 200 years old. They didn't have a TV or a radio as they were considered 'modern nonsense'. But to be fair to them, they were pleasant enough people, and offered me supper in the form of an omelette and dry bread.
There are a few more but I'll type more if I get a minute.
Anyone else experienced any strange parents of friends when you were younger?
One of my mates lived in quite a nice townhouse type properly, and despite know him for years during my late teens and twenties, I never ever met his parents once. No one I knew had ever met them. If you went round to his house he would have to stand and talk to you in the hallway, and very occasionally the kitchen... but never any further into the house. His parents would always be in 'the study' or the living room, and never once said hello. Or showed their faces. Ever. He admitted years later that he never let any of us come up to his room as his parents didn't like having anyone in the house, and that his bedroom was still decorated in the style of a child's bedroom and they wouldn't change it for him, or allow him to change it. It remained that way until he moved out aged about 27. I don't think he ever brought any girls home to see his bedroom...
My parents were always welcoming and generous when I had friends over, offering drinks, asking them if they would like to stay for dinner etc. But I remember another friends parents not being generous or welcoming in the slightest. We would never even get offered a glass of water when we were round there, which we frequently were. The situation came to a head one day when on a summers afternoon we asked our mate for a drink, he rummaged in the kitchen and handed us a Capri-Sun each. Great. Until his mum came in from work, looked in the fringe, exploded and then screamed at the top of her voice that she "didn't go shopping in order to provide drinks for his friends". Really quite awkward.
Then there was the girl who I was friendly with who invited me to her house after school. Upon arriving at her house, I found the interior of it looked like the set of a period drama from the early 1900's, and her parents had a combined age of approaching 200 years old. They didn't have a TV or a radio as they were considered 'modern nonsense'. But to be fair to them, they were pleasant enough people, and offered me supper in the form of an omelette and dry bread.
There are a few more but I'll type more if I get a minute.
Anyone else experienced any strange parents of friends when you were younger?
One of my friends dad was very much like the Victorian Dad character from Viz, he did not spare the rod....
Their house was a joyless, soul destroying place - unchanged in decor from the day it was built, nobody ever seemed to use the lights in case it used any electricity and it was as cold as a tomb all year round.
They did have a rarely used portable TV, it spend most of it's time hidden under a cosy knitted cover! However, for a house bereft of technology oddly 'dad' did had a VCR. It was a chunky Ferguson top loader, but to stop anyone using it, the cassette mechanism was secured with a chain and a padlock. I can only imagine what he used that for.....
The day my friend passed his test, he rolled his mums car into a ditch. Nobody saw him for a week after that, i assume till the visible wounds healed. Lives in Australia now, which doesn't surprise me.
One of my other friends dads realised i was quite handy at fixing stuff. Even though i was only 14 he set me about wiring in a couple of new sockets in his lounge and replacing his old clockwork central heating timer for one with a LCD display. Oh, and replacing the ballcock in his upstairs loo as well.
Not sure that makes him weird or just dangerously reckless!
Their house was a joyless, soul destroying place - unchanged in decor from the day it was built, nobody ever seemed to use the lights in case it used any electricity and it was as cold as a tomb all year round.
They did have a rarely used portable TV, it spend most of it's time hidden under a cosy knitted cover! However, for a house bereft of technology oddly 'dad' did had a VCR. It was a chunky Ferguson top loader, but to stop anyone using it, the cassette mechanism was secured with a chain and a padlock. I can only imagine what he used that for.....
The day my friend passed his test, he rolled his mums car into a ditch. Nobody saw him for a week after that, i assume till the visible wounds healed. Lives in Australia now, which doesn't surprise me.
One of my other friends dads realised i was quite handy at fixing stuff. Even though i was only 14 he set me about wiring in a couple of new sockets in his lounge and replacing his old clockwork central heating timer for one with a LCD display. Oh, and replacing the ballcock in his upstairs loo as well.
Not sure that makes him weird or just dangerously reckless!
Edited by littlebasher on Wednesday 16th November 06:41
I used to have a friend whose dad, whenever he came over to my house, would sit in his car outside until it was time for my friend to go home. Which was usually about 20-30 minutes after arriving.
I also always found it odd that at friends' houses they would keep their tomato ketchup in the fridge, rather than the cupboard like a normal person. It was only when I was much older that I realised ketchup is supposed to be kept in the fridge and it was my family being weird.
I also always found it odd that at friends' houses they would keep their tomato ketchup in the fridge, rather than the cupboard like a normal person. It was only when I was much older that I realised ketchup is supposed to be kept in the fridge and it was my family being weird.
There was a couple from when I grew up, we moved to a posh neighbourhood when I was young and the fruit cakes seemed more widespread around there....
One lad was called "Muggsy", a nice enough lad but slightly low on iq. He had an unfortunate appearance of large sticky out ears, bottle bottom national health specs, beige hearing aid and a prematurely receding hairline. All at the age of 8 or 9.
For all his quirks he was a simple innocent soul however and a couple of us took him under our wing, he was good fun although blessed with that slight craziness that such characters often are. The craziness was however slightly justified on meeting his parents for the first time.
His mother was MS suffering and (quite obvious now) self medicating via large amounts of wacky baccy. This rendered her quite useless around the house which had developed its own unique squalor for our guy and his much older sibling to live with. Strangely I can't remember if there was a father about (I'm pretty sure there wasn't but it's 30 years ago), however she seemed to get by without, no doubt helped by her astoundingly large VHS pornography collection. Quite an eye opener for a bunch of 10 year olds.
One summer she made a pilgrimage back home to some god forsaken part of Scotland from where she hailed and left charge of the house with muggsy and his 16 or 17 year old brother, which naturally turned into the finest party us 10 year olds had ever seen.
For all the socially awkward ways of his younger brother, the older sibling had a far and wide social circle of friends, no doubt helped by the ready supply of wacky baccy, alcohol, fags and loose attitudes to knocking up the local teenage females on the premises that his mother allowed. Once word of the Saturday night party got round, that social circle became somewhat wider.
As our last summer together as primary school friends, before we all diverted to whichever secondary school we'd chosen we planned attendance of said party with military precision. All centred around sleeping over at another friends house whose (alcoholic) mother had pretty relaxed views about curfews and by the late August Saturday that the party was planned for, we had (we thought) everything in plan.
Alcohol had been procured, though quite what our pre teen bodies would make of the distinctly 1980s "wine coolers" was unimaginable, fags would have been in abundance and a small gaggle of girls were invited in what we hoped would prove to be our moment, our graduation from boys to men. A proper house party, with fags, booze and girls. That we didn't really know what we were doing with any of the above had not encroached on our tiny minds.
The party started well and being a precocious bunch of 10/11 year olds amongst a group of teenagers meant we were somewhat indulged. As the party progressed however I was slightly concerned at just how many people were at the house. It wasn't my house, why should I care? But when we were turfed out of muggsy's bedroom by a man quite clearly in his thirties and struggled to get down the stairs for people we realised this party was way beyond what we expected.
Once we made it downstairs we found the complete living room had been moved into the front garden to make the impromptue dance floor larger. In the rear of the house (and quite how we never heard this) in order for the sound to reach the back garden the kitchen window had been smashed through.
As I said, it's a long time ago but I'd estimate the people in the house to be into the hundreds, in the days before widespread mobile cellular technology and social media it was still impossible for the jungle drums not to convey a message far and wide of a party.
This had two effects. On us, our small band of pretty sheltered pre teens, well we realised we were out of our depths and s
t ourselves. Poor muggsy however appeared to go into meltdown.
My lasting memory of him was pleading with his older brother while unceremoniously being beaten with his own mother's huge vibrator.
We decided to call it a night when the local football hooligan firm turned up to fight another group who's name escapes me (for some reason they dressed in army camo with quiffs and bullet belts). By this point the dining room table had been turned into firewood for the growing bonfire in the back garden and the neighbours had had enough.
As we departed we heard the sirens and saw the flashing blue lights of the approaching Black Marias.
As we all went our separate ways after that summer I have no idea what happened to muggsy and his somewhat disfunctional family. The house still stands, now repaired but they are long gone.
One lad was called "Muggsy", a nice enough lad but slightly low on iq. He had an unfortunate appearance of large sticky out ears, bottle bottom national health specs, beige hearing aid and a prematurely receding hairline. All at the age of 8 or 9.
For all his quirks he was a simple innocent soul however and a couple of us took him under our wing, he was good fun although blessed with that slight craziness that such characters often are. The craziness was however slightly justified on meeting his parents for the first time.
His mother was MS suffering and (quite obvious now) self medicating via large amounts of wacky baccy. This rendered her quite useless around the house which had developed its own unique squalor for our guy and his much older sibling to live with. Strangely I can't remember if there was a father about (I'm pretty sure there wasn't but it's 30 years ago), however she seemed to get by without, no doubt helped by her astoundingly large VHS pornography collection. Quite an eye opener for a bunch of 10 year olds.
One summer she made a pilgrimage back home to some god forsaken part of Scotland from where she hailed and left charge of the house with muggsy and his 16 or 17 year old brother, which naturally turned into the finest party us 10 year olds had ever seen.
For all the socially awkward ways of his younger brother, the older sibling had a far and wide social circle of friends, no doubt helped by the ready supply of wacky baccy, alcohol, fags and loose attitudes to knocking up the local teenage females on the premises that his mother allowed. Once word of the Saturday night party got round, that social circle became somewhat wider.
As our last summer together as primary school friends, before we all diverted to whichever secondary school we'd chosen we planned attendance of said party with military precision. All centred around sleeping over at another friends house whose (alcoholic) mother had pretty relaxed views about curfews and by the late August Saturday that the party was planned for, we had (we thought) everything in plan.
Alcohol had been procured, though quite what our pre teen bodies would make of the distinctly 1980s "wine coolers" was unimaginable, fags would have been in abundance and a small gaggle of girls were invited in what we hoped would prove to be our moment, our graduation from boys to men. A proper house party, with fags, booze and girls. That we didn't really know what we were doing with any of the above had not encroached on our tiny minds.
The party started well and being a precocious bunch of 10/11 year olds amongst a group of teenagers meant we were somewhat indulged. As the party progressed however I was slightly concerned at just how many people were at the house. It wasn't my house, why should I care? But when we were turfed out of muggsy's bedroom by a man quite clearly in his thirties and struggled to get down the stairs for people we realised this party was way beyond what we expected.
Once we made it downstairs we found the complete living room had been moved into the front garden to make the impromptue dance floor larger. In the rear of the house (and quite how we never heard this) in order for the sound to reach the back garden the kitchen window had been smashed through.
As I said, it's a long time ago but I'd estimate the people in the house to be into the hundreds, in the days before widespread mobile cellular technology and social media it was still impossible for the jungle drums not to convey a message far and wide of a party.
This had two effects. On us, our small band of pretty sheltered pre teens, well we realised we were out of our depths and s
t ourselves. Poor muggsy however appeared to go into meltdown.My lasting memory of him was pleading with his older brother while unceremoniously being beaten with his own mother's huge vibrator.
We decided to call it a night when the local football hooligan firm turned up to fight another group who's name escapes me (for some reason they dressed in army camo with quiffs and bullet belts). By this point the dining room table had been turned into firewood for the growing bonfire in the back garden and the neighbours had had enough.
As we departed we heard the sirens and saw the flashing blue lights of the approaching Black Marias.
As we all went our separate ways after that summer I have no idea what happened to muggsy and his somewhat disfunctional family. The house still stands, now repaired but they are long gone.
Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Wednesday 16th November 06:52
N5 NRO said:
I used to have a friend whose dad, whenever he came over to my house, would sit in his car outside until it was time for my friend to go home. Which was usually about 20-30 minutes after arriving.
I also always found it odd that at friends' houses they would keep their tomato ketchup in the fridge, rather than the cupboard like a normal person. It was only when I was much older that I realised ketchup is supposed to be kept in the fridge and it was my family being weird.
Been married 34 years and our ketchup has never been kept in the fridge once.I also always found it odd that at friends' houses they would keep their tomato ketchup in the fridge, rather than the cupboard like a normal person. It was only when I was much older that I realised ketchup is supposed to be kept in the fridge and it was my family being weird.
littlebasher said:
One of my friends dad was very much like the Victorian Dad character from Viz, he did not spare the rod....
Their house was a joyless, soul destroying place - unchanged in decor from the day it was built, nobody ever seemed to use the lights in case it used any electricity and it was as cold as a tomb all year round.
They did have a rarely used portable TV, it spend most of it's time hidden under a cosy knitted cover! However, for a house bereft of technology oddly 'dad' did had a VCR. It was a chunky Ferguson top loader, but to stop anyone using it, the cassette mechanism was secured with a chain and a padlock. I can only imagine what he used that for.....
The day my friend passed his test, he rolled his mums car into a ditch. Nobody saw him for a week after that, i assume till the visible wounds healed. Lives in Australia now, which doesn't surprise me.
One of my other friends dads realised i was quite handy at fixing stuff. Even though i was only 14 he set me about wiring in a couple of new sockets in his lounge and replacing his old clockwork central heating timer for one with a LCD display. Oh, and replacing the ballcock in his upstairs loo as well.
Not sure that makes him weird or just dangerously reckless!
My friend's dad was a vicar, he pretty much refused to use electric or ever heat the house. He kicked Pete out when he was 17 and he was homeless for about a year.Their house was a joyless, soul destroying place - unchanged in decor from the day it was built, nobody ever seemed to use the lights in case it used any electricity and it was as cold as a tomb all year round.
They did have a rarely used portable TV, it spend most of it's time hidden under a cosy knitted cover! However, for a house bereft of technology oddly 'dad' did had a VCR. It was a chunky Ferguson top loader, but to stop anyone using it, the cassette mechanism was secured with a chain and a padlock. I can only imagine what he used that for.....
The day my friend passed his test, he rolled his mums car into a ditch. Nobody saw him for a week after that, i assume till the visible wounds healed. Lives in Australia now, which doesn't surprise me.
One of my other friends dads realised i was quite handy at fixing stuff. Even though i was only 14 he set me about wiring in a couple of new sockets in his lounge and replacing his old clockwork central heating timer for one with a LCD display. Oh, and replacing the ballcock in his upstairs loo as well.
Not sure that makes him weird or just dangerously reckless!
Edited by littlebasher on Wednesday 16th November 06:41
Bloody christians.
One of my mates mums is a feeder, whenever we used to go round, there would be plates and plates of food for us to eat.
All frozen stuff, like mini pizzas and chicken nuggets and stuff, but when I was a wee teenager I thought it was amazing. Now that I'm older and my mate is severely overweight...not so good!
I do find it weird that some peoples parents don't allow friends into the house. One friend of mine was always round mine and our other mates, but we were never ever invited into hers. Even when she had borrowed my hoody she told to wait outside whilst she was inside for 10 minutes getting it and talking to her parents.
All frozen stuff, like mini pizzas and chicken nuggets and stuff, but when I was a wee teenager I thought it was amazing. Now that I'm older and my mate is severely overweight...not so good!
I do find it weird that some peoples parents don't allow friends into the house. One friend of mine was always round mine and our other mates, but we were never ever invited into hers. Even when she had borrowed my hoody she told to wait outside whilst she was inside for 10 minutes getting it and talking to her parents.
I recall a lad I met at secondary school and spending quite a bit of time over at his place when I was 13-14. Sadly his dad had passed away leaving his rather crazy but very sweet mum on her own with just him.
Anyway, one time I stayed over there for the weekend and he enlightened me to the cupboard in the living room. The cupboard which contained 10+ VHS' of industrial strength hardcore pornography. All 80s German stuff which involved various antics and amusing English narratives. His mum also had a massive stack of porn in her wardrobe which my mate enlightened me to as well.
Strange considering she was a 5' Malaysian woman in her 40s but hey it takes all sorts!
Anyway, one time I stayed over there for the weekend and he enlightened me to the cupboard in the living room. The cupboard which contained 10+ VHS' of industrial strength hardcore pornography. All 80s German stuff which involved various antics and amusing English narratives. His mum also had a massive stack of porn in her wardrobe which my mate enlightened me to as well.
Strange considering she was a 5' Malaysian woman in her 40s but hey it takes all sorts!
A mate of mine from primary school had a woman who was absolutely barking mad.
Her house was on the outskirts of the village and was the house of an old farm. She had it painted white with black spots, because she loved dalmatians.
So much so that she bred these dalmatians but, being 8/9 years old, was unable to really understand just how bad the conditions were for these dogs. They'd be in cages in the barns and only really let out to play in an old horse sandpit. Rumours were they used many of her dogs for the 101 Dalmatians live action film in the early 90s.
There were also quite a few men that would hang around the house who worked for her, apparently, who knows what.
the house had no carpet I can really remember but loads of newspaper everywhere upstairs.
She also had some odd behaviour, like when my friend was coming over for a birthday party, she wouldn't drop him off outside our house, but dropped him off a quarter mile down the road and he had to walk the rest of the way.
Looking back now its easy to see how much my parents disapproved of this woman but they kindly avoided saying much about it to me obviously and sure enough by age 11 and the end of primary school was the last I saw of him as we then went to different schools and he moved away soon after.
Several years later, another of my parent's friends bought the house and farm units for his business to then have them redone and let them out for business etc. It cost him more than twice what he paid to do the house up and get it back to an acceptable standard.
Her house was on the outskirts of the village and was the house of an old farm. She had it painted white with black spots, because she loved dalmatians.
So much so that she bred these dalmatians but, being 8/9 years old, was unable to really understand just how bad the conditions were for these dogs. They'd be in cages in the barns and only really let out to play in an old horse sandpit. Rumours were they used many of her dogs for the 101 Dalmatians live action film in the early 90s.
There were also quite a few men that would hang around the house who worked for her, apparently, who knows what.
the house had no carpet I can really remember but loads of newspaper everywhere upstairs.
She also had some odd behaviour, like when my friend was coming over for a birthday party, she wouldn't drop him off outside our house, but dropped him off a quarter mile down the road and he had to walk the rest of the way.
Looking back now its easy to see how much my parents disapproved of this woman but they kindly avoided saying much about it to me obviously and sure enough by age 11 and the end of primary school was the last I saw of him as we then went to different schools and he moved away soon after.
Several years later, another of my parent's friends bought the house and farm units for his business to then have them redone and let them out for business etc. It cost him more than twice what he paid to do the house up and get it back to an acceptable standard.
Purity14 said:
We had a friend who was really normal, no problem.. sound kid..!
... but we couldnt go in his house..
Not because we werent allowed, his house just had such a weird smell, spending a prolonged time there was very nauseating.. we all spoke about it, just never told him..
No idea what the smell was..!
There was a lad like that in my year at Primary School. He was nice enough but he smelled really bad. An almost eye-watering smell. I once arranged to swap some Amstrad CPC games with him, and I brought them home and my mum started asking what the terrible smell was in my room. Turned out it was the tapes and boxes of the games that smelled really bad from just being in his house.... but we couldnt go in his house..
Not because we werent allowed, his house just had such a weird smell, spending a prolonged time there was very nauseating.. we all spoke about it, just never told him..
No idea what the smell was..!
My mum made me throw out the cases for Daley Thompson's Decathlon and Jet Set Willy, but I was allowed to keep the tapes provided she wiped the plastic with Jif.
I was friends with three brothers, whose father was a loud, drunk, elderly Ulsterman called Everett, who used to sort of bark at you.
Think Father Jack and you are very close to the mark.
Loads of minor hilarity, but the one that sticks in my mind is being in a 6th form physics lesson with one of the brothers, who had apparently left home with no dinner money.
Half way through this very quiet lesson the door flies open and Everett marches in, up to to his son's desk, and flings two fivers on the table while barking "<no.1 son>'s money, <no.2 son>'s money". Then just turned round and presumably drove the ten miles home. The teacher just stared at him, then continued the lesson as before.
We also turned up at his house once to find him stood unsteadily outside, having presumably just driven back from the pub hours late. His wife was shouting at him from the top of the steps to the front door, and culminated her rant by throwing an entire trifle at him. His response was barking "that's good food!" then going indoors.
Think Father Jack and you are very close to the mark.
Loads of minor hilarity, but the one that sticks in my mind is being in a 6th form physics lesson with one of the brothers, who had apparently left home with no dinner money.
Half way through this very quiet lesson the door flies open and Everett marches in, up to to his son's desk, and flings two fivers on the table while barking "<no.1 son>'s money, <no.2 son>'s money". Then just turned round and presumably drove the ten miles home. The teacher just stared at him, then continued the lesson as before.
We also turned up at his house once to find him stood unsteadily outside, having presumably just driven back from the pub hours late. His wife was shouting at him from the top of the steps to the front door, and culminated her rant by throwing an entire trifle at him. His response was barking "that's good food!" then going indoors.
Purity14 said:
We had a friend who was really normal, no problem.. sound kid..!
... but we couldnt go in his house..
Not because we werent allowed, his house just had such a weird smell, spending a prolonged time there was very nauseating.. we all spoke about it, just never told him..
No idea what the smell was..!
The decaying corpses of his previous friends?... but we couldnt go in his house..
Not because we werent allowed, his house just had such a weird smell, spending a prolonged time there was very nauseating.. we all spoke about it, just never told him..
No idea what the smell was..!
I remember one lad who was the middle of 3 Brothers I think.
His Mum worked on the desk at the local bank - so obviously she spent her working life gossiping with all the other Mums (including mine) when they went in, no doubt about whatever high jinx us lads had been up to.
Suddenly, and unexpectedly, they 'moved away' one day, so somewhere far fetched, like Skipton...
A few months later all was revealed by a story in the Yorkshire Evening Post about a bank employee who had been jailed after finally being caught having spent years rifling away thousands of pounds from people in some elaborate bank based scam.
Never did see him again.
His Mum worked on the desk at the local bank - so obviously she spent her working life gossiping with all the other Mums (including mine) when they went in, no doubt about whatever high jinx us lads had been up to.
Suddenly, and unexpectedly, they 'moved away' one day, so somewhere far fetched, like Skipton...
A few months later all was revealed by a story in the Yorkshire Evening Post about a bank employee who had been jailed after finally being caught having spent years rifling away thousands of pounds from people in some elaborate bank based scam.
Never did see him again.
One of my friends Dad was a bit of an oddball. In the summer he's always be wearing the smallest budgie smuggling swimming trunks he could find. When we were around 18ish he always made inappropriate comments about the girls we hung around with and about his daughters friends 
He rang me up once and asked if I had cable tv at my parents, and could I video a programme for him on a certain channel at 11pm. I looked it up and it was some softcore porn
He rang me up once and asked if I had cable tv at my parents, and could I video a programme for him on a certain channel at 11pm. I looked it up and it was some softcore porn
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff