Snakes in the freezer and a taxidermied turkey in my living room
September 8, 2020 6:24 AM Subscribe
Nicole Cliffe's request: "If you normalized something (non-awful) because your family did it and then realized it was not, in fact, normal or remotely common, I would love to hear about it." "i didn’t realized until i spent thanksgiving with a boyfriend’s family that other families do not, in fact, head outside after the meal to throw pumpkins off the roof and watch them explode." An amusing Twitter thread on non-awful things families normalize, which are, in retrospect, uncommon.
Every week when the TV guide came we'd gather as a family and plan out the week's viewing. Is that weird?
We also for several years had a strict ritual of Friday night = taco night, which also meant X-Files night = taco night.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:18 AM on September 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
We also for several years had a strict ritual of Friday night = taco night, which also meant X-Files night = taco night.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:18 AM on September 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
It was only when friends and my partner's siblings all started to get married that I realised you could have a wedding without someone having some sort of barney, backbiting or break-up.
posted by biffa at 7:24 AM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by biffa at 7:24 AM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
It was interesting to see the divides on how to open Christmas gifts. We always did out family on Christmas Eve, one at a time going around the room. As we kids got older/married/had kids it became an hours-long slog, so now the adults do Yankee Gift Swap and the little kids get gifts which they can open in a frenzy.
posted by emjaybee at 7:30 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 7:30 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
My dad told my brother and I we had a brother and sister named Peter and Suzie but they were bad so they had to live under the house. I freaked out when we moved when I was 5 and didn’t take them. Weird to realize this was not a typical threat to get your kids to behaveMy Dad’s brothers convinced him that there had been a fourth brother who was eaten by a St. Bernard.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:30 AM on September 8, 2020 [17 favorites]
My mom (Prevention Magazine-reading health nut, German immigrant edition) was highly suspicious of the hypersweet snack foods available in Canada and started referring to it as "poison". So one day, five-year-old me was playing with neighbourhood friends when their mom brought out drinks for us. I took one sip, tasted the carbonation and said, "This is poison!" and refused to drink it.
Apparently, this involved a certain amount of adults discussing things afterwards.
posted by suetanvil at 7:34 AM on September 8, 2020 [18 favorites]
Apparently, this involved a certain amount of adults discussing things afterwards.
posted by suetanvil at 7:34 AM on September 8, 2020 [18 favorites]
Ours is probably the magic thumb treatment, a practice I continue to advocate for parents of young kids. All of mine, sadly, are too old for it to work anymore.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:35 AM on September 8, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:35 AM on September 8, 2020 [8 favorites]
Can't help identifying with the one about well-done steak. My mom liked it that way so that was how I had it. I hated steak until I had some of my dad's medium-rare steak, which was delicious and juicy. She also took the same approach to pork chops. But then came the invention of Shake 'n' Bake for pork chops and by following the directions she stopped cooking them to a leather-like consistency.
posted by tommasz at 8:18 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 8:18 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
The one about the sin gifts is just absolutely hilarious. Imagine going out to your nativity one day and finding a random box wrapped like a present with no address. You open it up and it's got a bunch of childish scrawls confessing hitting Jimmy at recess on scraps of paper. You never find out who left it or why.
Just. *chef's kiss*
posted by sciatrix at 8:43 AM on September 8, 2020 [30 favorites]
Just. *chef's kiss*
posted by sciatrix at 8:43 AM on September 8, 2020 [30 favorites]
I love this. I always think it's so fun to compare how people go about things. Every now and then Mr. Bowties and I talk about things that were commonplace in our families growing up, or things we find out are different (example: we both accepted as truth that ordering pizza on Friday nights is A Thing, but a friend is absolutely gobsmacked by Friday being a particular day for pizza above any others). My current household is very strictly shoes-off, but growing up I got in trouble all the time for having no shoes on basically any time that I wasn't asleep in bed. Or, like, I only eat sugar cereal on vacation because it is vacation food. Especially as we're looking at having kids in the near future and because we're both atheist white mutts without a lot of "this is our cultural heritage to do/eat/participate in XYZ" or structure to fall back on as a default, and kind of have to make active decisions about how to engage in, well, basically everything. And I want to go about establishing how WE do things in a way that also is not culturally appropriating or otherwise morally wrong. So I super dig stuff like Popcorn Time, holiday habits, different foods for different events/times of year, special family language and jokes, that kind of thing.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 8:45 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by bowtiesarecool at 8:45 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
Best response:
Combo of my mother and father's quirks: my mom felt very strongly there should be no visible tv in the living room, and my father loves things to be "just so", so after every movie he wld put the whole tv, remote, & cords back into factory packaging. "Just like new!" he would sayposted by ricochet biscuit at 8:57 AM on September 8, 2020 [19 favorites]
I reached into the freezer and found a pheasant head. In that moment, I realized how little I actually know about my husband's childhood.
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:03 AM on September 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:03 AM on September 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
We have a language for pets. I will not repeat it, because some secrets should stay secrets, and also it is very silly. For example, there is a certain song that is required to get the dogs to go outside, and you have to clap along to it.
Popcorn time is five; retirement makes this possible. It is air-popped and suitable for every day.
My parents' families disagree on the proper way to see someone buried. My father's folks go to the cemetery, hear the minister speak, then depart to leave the actual burial to the professionals. My mother's folks stay and watch the dirt hit the coffin lid, shovel by shovel, until someone eases away and makes it okay for everyone else to leave. Both think the other practice is morbid.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:05 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
Popcorn time is five; retirement makes this possible. It is air-popped and suitable for every day.
My parents' families disagree on the proper way to see someone buried. My father's folks go to the cemetery, hear the minister speak, then depart to leave the actual burial to the professionals. My mother's folks stay and watch the dirt hit the coffin lid, shovel by shovel, until someone eases away and makes it okay for everyone else to leave. Both think the other practice is morbid.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:05 AM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
Did this already win the monthly chatfilter fundraiser? I'd vote for it!
posted by TDIpod at 9:21 AM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by TDIpod at 9:21 AM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I was way into my mid to late 20's before I realized that other families didn't just invite their friends to someone else's wedding. Or not even just friends, but absolutely every other human being they laid eyes on in the 24 hours before the wedding started (my uncle and I went to buy ice in the middle of wedding, and he spent like 5 minutes trying to get the liquor store clerk to promise to come to the wedding reception after he got off work) . Planning on +/- 100 people to show up is just something my larger family did.
Because if some distant cousin of my dad was getting married, not only would his kids be going (so me), 17 year old me might bring a few friends, and one of them has a serious girlfriend so she's coming, etc etc. Do that with the 100 people you initially invited, and like 500 would show up.
But, these were the kinda events where people showed up on Friday, the ceremony was on Sat morning, and the people who had to work on Monday started going home Sunday evening, but everyone else might stay even longer. I'm not even sure if invites got sent out. There was definitely never ever a seating chart.
However, as someone who paid ~$150 a head just for food/booze at my wedding a couple years ago, I can now see why this was a problem. I'm still terrible at RSVPs in general though. How can I know how many people I'll run into on the way to the party????
posted by sideshow at 9:46 AM on September 8, 2020 [15 favorites]
Because if some distant cousin of my dad was getting married, not only would his kids be going (so me), 17 year old me might bring a few friends, and one of them has a serious girlfriend so she's coming, etc etc. Do that with the 100 people you initially invited, and like 500 would show up.
But, these were the kinda events where people showed up on Friday, the ceremony was on Sat morning, and the people who had to work on Monday started going home Sunday evening, but everyone else might stay even longer. I'm not even sure if invites got sent out. There was definitely never ever a seating chart.
However, as someone who paid ~$150 a head just for food/booze at my wedding a couple years ago, I can now see why this was a problem. I'm still terrible at RSVPs in general though. How can I know how many people I'll run into on the way to the party????
posted by sideshow at 9:46 AM on September 8, 2020 [15 favorites]
My wife and I had a bit of culture clash based on my family traditionally going out and doing projects after holiday meals (putting up xmas lights, cutting the hedges back, etc etc), and hers did not do this. So I have this genetic predisposition to treat holidays as "okay, what's our project today", whereas she's all "ahh, sloth time."
posted by rmd1023 at 10:05 AM on September 8, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 10:05 AM on September 8, 2020 [10 favorites]
rmd: We have something similar. My SO can't do nothing on holiday. When she was a kid if there was no outing planned they had to go and play on the beach, regardless of weather (see also 'What's the point of windbreaks? You can't see the view') and this has stuck.
posted by biffa at 10:16 AM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by biffa at 10:16 AM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
we both accepted as truth that ordering pizza on Friday nights is A Thing, but a friend is absolutely gobsmacked by Friday being a particular day for pizza above any others
"Prior to 1966, Catholics were expected to abstain from meat every Friday, regardless of whether it was Lent." My parents grew up with this expectation, and our Lenten season Friday-night cheese pizza order bled into the rest of the year.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:27 AM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Prior to 1966, Catholics were expected to abstain from meat every Friday, regardless of whether it was Lent." My parents grew up with this expectation, and our Lenten season Friday-night cheese pizza order bled into the rest of the year.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:27 AM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
My parents would drive to a news stand every Saturday night to buy the Sunday paper so they could drive home to read it. They got daily newspaper delivery weekdays.
My folks were not the partying type, so every New Year's Eve, they'd bring up a giant cut-crystal punch bowl along with crystal ladle and cups (I think it was a wedding present), and they'd make a non-alcoholic fruit punch which included 3-4 different concentrated juices, raspberry sherbet and ginger ale, and all five of us would drink that until midnight. This punchbowl was only used for this purpose, one time a year. They would also make boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce on NYE, the only time of the year we would eat that. We had an old cowbell and two ancient noisemakers that were used by the fire department back in the early 1900s and we'd make lots of noise on the porch at midnight.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:52 AM on September 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
My folks were not the partying type, so every New Year's Eve, they'd bring up a giant cut-crystal punch bowl along with crystal ladle and cups (I think it was a wedding present), and they'd make a non-alcoholic fruit punch which included 3-4 different concentrated juices, raspberry sherbet and ginger ale, and all five of us would drink that until midnight. This punchbowl was only used for this purpose, one time a year. They would also make boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce on NYE, the only time of the year we would eat that. We had an old cowbell and two ancient noisemakers that were used by the fire department back in the early 1900s and we'd make lots of noise on the porch at midnight.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:52 AM on September 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
My mother had me utterly convinced that I could not go in the water after eating or drinking until 22 minutes had passed. Not 21! Twenty-two. I’m sure I told other people. I didn’t want them to die!
I guess 23 would have been OK, but 22 minutes is a looong time when you’re young, so I never found out.
(I was older than I’d like to admit when I realized this number was plucked from thin air. Maybe a teenager even?)
posted by veggieboy at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2020
I guess 23 would have been OK, but 22 minutes is a looong time when you’re young, so I never found out.
(I was older than I’d like to admit when I realized this number was plucked from thin air. Maybe a teenager even?)
posted by veggieboy at 10:57 AM on September 8, 2020
Growing up, my maternal grandfather, my father, and my brother all disliked Taco Bell, so I assumed all boys/men universally despised Taco Bell (and all Mexican food, since Taco Bell was the extent of my Mexican food knowledge).
posted by snerson at 11:13 AM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by snerson at 11:13 AM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Great post!
I almost got a twitter account so I could <3 peoples' stories, some of them are amazing. There are so many eccentric people out there. And also I love the lies people tell their kids.
Pizza on Fridays is very normal, in my experience.
When I grew up, we had to bathe and dress for dinner at my grandparents' house. When I realized this was not normal, I thought it was my grandparents being posh. Now that I am the grandparent in charge of cleaning the house I realize that it is a practical and sensible thing when you are on a farm.
Also: until very recently, I thought I wasn't a picky eater, because I will eat everything picky eaters normally hate. But then I realized that I hate all the so-called normal stuff, like burgers, hotdogs, meatloaf and casseroles and sweets without dark chocolate. I always tried to avoid sleepovers because we would get (IMO) disgusting food, probably because people were used to picky kids.
I'm still surprised when I see adults eat children's sweets. When I was growing up, adults only had sweets after dinner, and only dark chocolate with or without fillings.
When my own kids were small, I convinced them I was a witch. Our food processor was broken, and only worked with a chopstick pushed into the safety thing. So every time I made a cake or a soup or something, I would take out my magic wand. They totally believed it and told all their friends, who were duly impressed.
posted by mumimor at 11:24 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I almost got a twitter account so I could <3 peoples' stories, some of them are amazing. There are so many eccentric people out there. And also I love the lies people tell their kids.
Pizza on Fridays is very normal, in my experience.
When I grew up, we had to bathe and dress for dinner at my grandparents' house. When I realized this was not normal, I thought it was my grandparents being posh. Now that I am the grandparent in charge of cleaning the house I realize that it is a practical and sensible thing when you are on a farm.
Also: until very recently, I thought I wasn't a picky eater, because I will eat everything picky eaters normally hate. But then I realized that I hate all the so-called normal stuff, like burgers, hotdogs, meatloaf and casseroles and sweets without dark chocolate. I always tried to avoid sleepovers because we would get (IMO) disgusting food, probably because people were used to picky kids.
I'm still surprised when I see adults eat children's sweets. When I was growing up, adults only had sweets after dinner, and only dark chocolate with or without fillings.
When my own kids were small, I convinced them I was a witch. Our food processor was broken, and only worked with a chopstick pushed into the safety thing. So every time I made a cake or a soup or something, I would take out my magic wand. They totally believed it and told all their friends, who were duly impressed.
posted by mumimor at 11:24 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
Sitting down with kebabs collected from the kebab shop as though they were fancy greek takeout from time to time, cutlery and everything. It was only in adolescence that I learned this was hilariously weird, like getting macdonald's for a candlelit dinner.
I mean I could bust out about 10,000 words easily here, as I'm sure many mefites could, but that's one of my favourites.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:27 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I mean I could bust out about 10,000 words easily here, as I'm sure many mefites could, but that's one of my favourites.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:27 AM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
"Prior to 1966, Catholics were expected to abstain from meat every Friday, regardless of whether it was Lent." My parents grew up with this expectation, and our Lenten season Friday-night cheese pizza order bled into the rest of the year.
Yes, I grew up in a largely Catholic community, and meatless Friday was Just What You Did. Even for Protestants. School lunch was grilled cheese or fish. And combine meatless Friday with Friday being payday for most workers, and the local restaurants could barely keep up with fish fry and cheese pizza.
The episode of Derry Girls where they got banned from the fish & chip shop resonated very strongly!
"What do you expect me to do on Fridays, Fionnula, cook? You expect me to cook?"
“Yous could always order pizza.”
“It’s just not as nice.”
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:56 AM on September 8, 2020 [18 favorites]
Yes, I grew up in a largely Catholic community, and meatless Friday was Just What You Did. Even for Protestants. School lunch was grilled cheese or fish. And combine meatless Friday with Friday being payday for most workers, and the local restaurants could barely keep up with fish fry and cheese pizza.
The episode of Derry Girls where they got banned from the fish & chip shop resonated very strongly!
"What do you expect me to do on Fridays, Fionnula, cook? You expect me to cook?"
“Yous could always order pizza.”
“It’s just not as nice.”
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:56 AM on September 8, 2020 [18 favorites]
I know I’ve mentioned these two things on Metafilter before, but they’re the ones that turned out to be the weirdest.
If someone asked you to pass bread or pancakes at the table, you gently slapped them in the face with it first.
When you opened a pair of underpants on Christmas morning, you were expected to put them on your head like a party hat. When you unwrapped a pair of socks, you wore them on your ears like floppy dog ears.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:59 AM on September 8, 2020 [19 favorites]
If someone asked you to pass bread or pancakes at the table, you gently slapped them in the face with it first.
When you opened a pair of underpants on Christmas morning, you were expected to put them on your head like a party hat. When you unwrapped a pair of socks, you wore them on your ears like floppy dog ears.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:59 AM on September 8, 2020 [19 favorites]
When putting a cake in the oven my mother would tell us that we had to be very quiet for the next hour or the Cake Would Fall.
I was in my 20s, living with housemates, when I made a cake and, while putting it oven, I was about halfway telling everyone that "I'd just put the cake in the oven so please be quiet for the... HEY WAIT A MINUTE HERE..." and realized that this was just a way to get the kids to be quiet for an hour or two.
posted by aspo at 12:05 PM on September 8, 2020 [34 favorites]
I was in my 20s, living with housemates, when I made a cake and, while putting it oven, I was about halfway telling everyone that "I'd just put the cake in the oven so please be quiet for the... HEY WAIT A MINUTE HERE..." and realized that this was just a way to get the kids to be quiet for an hour or two.
posted by aspo at 12:05 PM on September 8, 2020 [34 favorites]
In our household, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was known as “Soup and Crackers for Lunch” for reasons obscured by time. Similarly, everyone referred to a toilet as a “connode” (yes, with ‘n’s) and James Franciscus as “Mr. Smile Boy.”
posted by kinnakeet at 12:10 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by kinnakeet at 12:10 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I don't think I've seen very many other families who have picnic tables in the front yard and eat dinner out there most summer evenings. In our defense, our family owns four neighbouring cottages on both sides of the street, so the front yard is a more central location for everyone!
posted by carolr at 12:30 PM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by carolr at 12:30 PM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
My mother had me utterly convinced that I could not go in the water after eating or drinking until 22 minutes had passed.
I was told I had to wait an hour. I guess your Mom's hour had 22 minutes. (Canadian comedy TV show reference)
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:48 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
I was told I had to wait an hour. I guess your Mom's hour had 22 minutes. (Canadian comedy TV show reference)
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:48 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
"No, Orla. It's not as nice."
Being from a Catholic family in Southern Wisconsin, we also did Meatless Fridays. My friends and I were so ingrained in this tradition that when we were broke-ass college students, we'd pile into someone's beater Toyota that's held together with duct tape, Skinny Puppy stickers, and love, and go to our favorite Truck Stop. There, we'd all partake in the All You Can Eat Fish and Chips special that they had. The staff let us stay for hours, and liked us because we mainly stayed sober, and kept to ourselves. A little clot of Goths and Rivetheads, amongst everyone else.
Now I want Fish and Chips.
posted by spinifex23 at 12:56 PM on September 8, 2020 [10 favorites]
Being from a Catholic family in Southern Wisconsin, we also did Meatless Fridays. My friends and I were so ingrained in this tradition that when we were broke-ass college students, we'd pile into someone's beater Toyota that's held together with duct tape, Skinny Puppy stickers, and love, and go to our favorite Truck Stop. There, we'd all partake in the All You Can Eat Fish and Chips special that they had. The staff let us stay for hours, and liked us because we mainly stayed sober, and kept to ourselves. A little clot of Goths and Rivetheads, amongst everyone else.
Now I want Fish and Chips.
posted by spinifex23 at 12:56 PM on September 8, 2020 [10 favorites]
The Underpants Monster, that Christmas thing is just ...eponysensible.
posted by wellred at 1:17 PM on September 8, 2020 [11 favorites]
posted by wellred at 1:17 PM on September 8, 2020 [11 favorites]
As a rural farm kid:
We had a 'coat closet' full of army surplus coats, boots, etc., for rough work. Big cattle moving days started with everyone sorting through the army boots to find a pair that more or less fit.
Surely not everyone grew up with the kitchen broom closet full of brooms, mops, and rifles. My mother, an avid birdwatcher, had the screen removed from the window above the kitchen sink, so that if the 'wrong' birds came to the feeder, she could shoot at them.
posted by Occula at 1:25 PM on September 8, 2020 [20 favorites]
We had a 'coat closet' full of army surplus coats, boots, etc., for rough work. Big cattle moving days started with everyone sorting through the army boots to find a pair that more or less fit.
Surely not everyone grew up with the kitchen broom closet full of brooms, mops, and rifles. My mother, an avid birdwatcher, had the screen removed from the window above the kitchen sink, so that if the 'wrong' birds came to the feeder, she could shoot at them.
posted by Occula at 1:25 PM on September 8, 2020 [20 favorites]
When you opened a pair of underpants on Christmas morning, you were expected to put them on your head like a party hat. When you unwrapped a pair of socks, you wore them on your ears like floppy dog ears.
In our house, when you pulled a sticky bow off a wrapped gift, you stuck it on the cat. The cat was not a fan.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:01 PM on September 8, 2020 [16 favorites]
In our house, when you pulled a sticky bow off a wrapped gift, you stuck it on the cat. The cat was not a fan.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:01 PM on September 8, 2020 [16 favorites]
Doesn't everyone spend every New Year's Eve ice fishing? It's exciting because you get to stay in the tiny fish house overnight and it has holes in the floor where you can drop your line into the icy water all night long! And there's a little wood stove for keeping warm and heating up the can of baked beans. You can even skate on the bumpy frozen lake if you shovel off the snow first. That's a traditional New Year's Eve, right?
posted by a fish out of water at 2:38 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by a fish out of water at 2:38 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
Turns out firecrackers at a wake aren't normal. I learned this telling the story of how at one great-grandma's funeral a mistimed cracker went under the chair of my OTHER great-grandma and my dad got yelled at but it was funny.
Since my kid learns Japanese we do a Japanese pre-meal vocal back and forth. Which has led to her sometimes sitting on the couch with her snack saying "itadakimasu" in increasingly firm tones until someone else says "hai dozo". Accidentally doing that with friends is always a bit awkward.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:40 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
Since my kid learns Japanese we do a Japanese pre-meal vocal back and forth. Which has led to her sometimes sitting on the couch with her snack saying "itadakimasu" in increasingly firm tones until someone else says "hai dozo". Accidentally doing that with friends is always a bit awkward.
posted by geek anachronism at 2:40 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
I was only allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve, and no matter what I picked (and it was always my choice) it was new pajamas to wear that night and on Christmas morning. I'm honestly not sure how they pulled that off.
Speaking of things I don't know how they pulled off.. occasionally on our old couch, if I brought my dad a glass of water from the bathroom, he could cluck and lay an egg, right there while I watched. And not like those plastic two-piece easter eggs, but realistic white eggs from my kitchen playset.
I searched and searched, and tried to listen and watch to see how my mom was slipping him eggs or if they were wedged under the cushions and to this day I *still* don't know how he laid those eggs.
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:45 PM on September 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
Speaking of things I don't know how they pulled off.. occasionally on our old couch, if I brought my dad a glass of water from the bathroom, he could cluck and lay an egg, right there while I watched. And not like those plastic two-piece easter eggs, but realistic white eggs from my kitchen playset.
I searched and searched, and tried to listen and watch to see how my mom was slipping him eggs or if they were wedged under the cushions and to this day I *still* don't know how he laid those eggs.
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:45 PM on September 8, 2020 [12 favorites]
My mom used to make a batch of nestle tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, put the bowl of raw dough in the fridge, and we'd eat spoonfuls of it until it was gone. My brother always waited until Day 2 to see if someone got salmonella.
posted by Mavri at 3:02 PM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Mavri at 3:02 PM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
"No, Orla. It's not as nice."
I just watched this episode early this morning!
posted by JenMarie at 3:03 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I just watched this episode early this morning!
posted by JenMarie at 3:03 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I thought it was normal to sing out loud along with the music in stores. My sister is four years younger than me and got embarassed sometime in her teens, which was the first time I realized no one else was singing other than our family. I thought maybe they were just not as good at remembering song lyrics as my mom - or as good at projecting (she used to do musical theatre and even in her 70s she can still bring it vocally).
I still have trouble stopping myself if it's a catchy song and don't always realize it, sadly although both parents and both siblings are excellent singers I seem to be incapable of learning. I got asked to leave choir in sixth grade, failed the audition in junior high and then was told to pursue other things after a few weeks of paid vocal classes, and eventually was asked to just stay quiet and and move my mouth in high school musicals.
posted by buildmyworld at 3:22 PM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I still have trouble stopping myself if it's a catchy song and don't always realize it, sadly although both parents and both siblings are excellent singers I seem to be incapable of learning. I got asked to leave choir in sixth grade, failed the audition in junior high and then was told to pursue other things after a few weeks of paid vocal classes, and eventually was asked to just stay quiet and and move my mouth in high school musicals.
posted by buildmyworld at 3:22 PM on September 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
I was only allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve, and no matter what I picked (and it was always my choice) it was new pajamas to wear that night and on Christmas morning. I'm honestly not sure how they pulled that off.
If my childhood sleight-of-hand books are anything to go by, all the packages were new pajamas, and after you went to bed your parents re-wrapped what you didn't pick to contain your other presents!
posted by traveler_ at 3:37 PM on September 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
If my childhood sleight-of-hand books are anything to go by, all the packages were new pajamas, and after you went to bed your parents re-wrapped what you didn't pick to contain your other presents!
posted by traveler_ at 3:37 PM on September 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
Spouse was in his mid-thirties before he learned that U.S .Thanksgiving was not a holy day (raised Catholic).
If one of my siblings or I say "I had a [lastname] style dinner" it meant that we had popcorn for dinner.
We had a house "ghost" named Spencer. Spencer's role was to be the repository of all the bad behavior that my siblings and I refused to acknowledge. When my younger brother was in grade school he had a teacher convinced that there was a very poorly behaved older sibling.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:44 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
If one of my siblings or I say "I had a [lastname] style dinner" it meant that we had popcorn for dinner.
We had a house "ghost" named Spencer. Spencer's role was to be the repository of all the bad behavior that my siblings and I refused to acknowledge. When my younger brother was in grade school he had a teacher convinced that there was a very poorly behaved older sibling.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:44 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Occula - You're not the only one who grew up in a house where the .22 was kept leaning in the same closet as the mops and brooms.
posted by jferg at 3:51 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by jferg at 3:51 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
I also learned as an adult that not every family waits around the cemetery after the funeral to 'make sure they don't steal anything from the coffin.' Why funeral home/cemetery employees might have wanted my grandfather's hat is something I didn't question for a long time.
posted by Occula at 4:20 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Occula at 4:20 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Most ranch stuff is a surprise to the uninitiated, but I'm guessing the set of coveralls with one sleeve cut off, for artificially inseminating cows, was probably not wildly common. And don't forget the semen tank in a safe corner of the barn, serviced (ha) by a man in a truck who would come by twice a year to check the seals and top off the liquid nitrogen. And of course the "Select Sires" mug and baseball cap from some promotion by the semen catalog.
Also not that unique but I do enjoy thinking back on the shifts in the fashions of grooming animals for shows. (Hoof polish! Show sheen! Ratting tails! Giant blow driers!)
posted by esoterrica at 4:46 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
Also not that unique but I do enjoy thinking back on the shifts in the fashions of grooming animals for shows. (Hoof polish! Show sheen! Ratting tails! Giant blow driers!)
posted by esoterrica at 4:46 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
Surely not everyone grew up with the kitchen broom closet full of brooms, mops, and rifles. My mother, an avid birdwatcher, had the screen removed from the window above the kitchen sink, so that if the 'wrong' birds came to the feeder, she could shoot at them.
Sooooo... Christmas at Occula's house this year, yes?
posted by Mayor West at 5:07 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Sooooo... Christmas at Occula's house this year, yes?
posted by Mayor West at 5:07 PM on September 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
When my kids were small, for no good reason I can recall, I started calling crab surimi / crab stick / faux crab: Fun Crab. And so my kids called it Fun Crab. And apparently grew up believing that it's real name was Fun Crab. And were brought up short, and DEEPLY aggro with me, when their friends explained that no, Fun Crab is not a thing, and where the hell did you get that from?
posted by hearthpig at 5:12 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by hearthpig at 5:12 PM on September 8, 2020 [5 favorites]
Fun Crab is not a thing
Not precisely the same thing but as a child I was obsessed with cars and used to sit in the front window and identify the make and model and year of every car that went past*. I recall hesitating the first time I saw a Volkswagen Rabbit (a Golf outside of North America) as to me a VW was a Beetle. My dad saw me stumped and explained, “That one’s a little tricky.” From that moment forth, that car was eternally the Volkswagen Little Tricky.
*I have no interest in cars now, and if someone asks me what kind of car so-and-so drives (when I have seen this car every day for years), I have to shrug and say “a blue one?” I have learned that my ancient knowledge has settled in to the silt of my unconscious. Show me a car from before 1975 or so and a tiny voice will whisper the info to me and I can say “1966 Ford Fairlane” or whatever and be right upward of 90% of the time. I have no idea how.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:36 PM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
Not precisely the same thing but as a child I was obsessed with cars and used to sit in the front window and identify the make and model and year of every car that went past*. I recall hesitating the first time I saw a Volkswagen Rabbit (a Golf outside of North America) as to me a VW was a Beetle. My dad saw me stumped and explained, “That one’s a little tricky.” From that moment forth, that car was eternally the Volkswagen Little Tricky.
*I have no interest in cars now, and if someone asks me what kind of car so-and-so drives (when I have seen this car every day for years), I have to shrug and say “a blue one?” I have learned that my ancient knowledge has settled in to the silt of my unconscious. Show me a car from before 1975 or so and a tiny voice will whisper the info to me and I can say “1966 Ford Fairlane” or whatever and be right upward of 90% of the time. I have no idea how.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:36 PM on September 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
"Prior to 1966, Catholics were expected to abstain from meat every Friday, regardless of whether it was Lent." My parents grew up with this expectation, and our Lenten season Friday-night cheese pizza order bled into the rest of the year."
My dad went to Catholic school K-8 but lived in such a small town that he had to go to (gasp!) public school for high school (with like 30 people in his graduating class). He was a 12-season varsity athlete (3 sports a year, all 4 years) and the coaches took the athletes out every Friday night, and everybody else had a burger, and he had "a crummy old grilled cheese sandwich." Anyway, we had pancakes on Lenten Fridays, because my dad refused grilled cheese and all us Midwestern kids refused my mom's East Coast seafood extravaganzas. (Because, ew, did you ever have fresh fish in the Midwest prior to planes flying it in daily? NOT GOOD.)
"When putting a cake in the oven my mother would tell us that we had to be very quiet for the next hour or the Cake Would Fall."
If it was an egg-white-leavened cake, it might!
My husband is an only child of an only child, so it's basically him and his mom, and he married into a family where more than 80 of my relatives came to my out-of-state wedding, so he has had to adapt to a lot of weird family traditions because we have MANY and there are a LOT of us. We open presents from youngest to oldest on Christmas, and it's fascinating to me that my own kids, and my nieces and nephews, all figure this out when they're two. They don't remember the adult order very well, but they definitely know what order the kids all go in and they'll get mad at the babies if the babies aren't opening fast enough, and they FOR SURE know when their turn is!
He has yet to learn to polka, though, so he's not very much use at the polka party part of the funerals. I was really honestly very shocked when I went to my first non-family funeral in high school -- it was a friend's father, they were Presbyterian -- and everyone was sad and solemn at church and then stayed sad and solemn at the reception, instead of sending someone on a beer run and eventually breaking out the polka music and dancing. I was honestly fairly distressed that the funeral never turned happy! I had no idea that not every funeral ended in the church foyer with everyone discussing who would go buy the beer!
(Nobody in my family is Polish; my dad's side is Chicago Catholics but weren't Irish or Polish, so my grandfather had to learn to polka if he wanted to meet ANY girls, because church dances were the only way and they all involved polkas, and the Polish (and Irish!) moms were not real happy to have this non-Polish/Irish boy wanting to date their daughters. My mom had to learn to polka to marry my dad, and she was like, "Oh, you just count '1-2-3-and' and let your grandfather throw you around, there's nothing to it." TRUE FACT.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:07 PM on September 8, 2020 [9 favorites]
My dad went to Catholic school K-8 but lived in such a small town that he had to go to (gasp!) public school for high school (with like 30 people in his graduating class). He was a 12-season varsity athlete (3 sports a year, all 4 years) and the coaches took the athletes out every Friday night, and everybody else had a burger, and he had "a crummy old grilled cheese sandwich." Anyway, we had pancakes on Lenten Fridays, because my dad refused grilled cheese and all us Midwestern kids refused my mom's East Coast seafood extravaganzas. (Because, ew, did you ever have fresh fish in the Midwest prior to planes flying it in daily? NOT GOOD.)
"When putting a cake in the oven my mother would tell us that we had to be very quiet for the next hour or the Cake Would Fall."
If it was an egg-white-leavened cake, it might!
My husband is an only child of an only child, so it's basically him and his mom, and he married into a family where more than 80 of my relatives came to my out-of-state wedding, so he has had to adapt to a lot of weird family traditions because we have MANY and there are a LOT of us. We open presents from youngest to oldest on Christmas, and it's fascinating to me that my own kids, and my nieces and nephews, all figure this out when they're two. They don't remember the adult order very well, but they definitely know what order the kids all go in and they'll get mad at the babies if the babies aren't opening fast enough, and they FOR SURE know when their turn is!
He has yet to learn to polka, though, so he's not very much use at the polka party part of the funerals. I was really honestly very shocked when I went to my first non-family funeral in high school -- it was a friend's father, they were Presbyterian -- and everyone was sad and solemn at church and then stayed sad and solemn at the reception, instead of sending someone on a beer run and eventually breaking out the polka music and dancing. I was honestly fairly distressed that the funeral never turned happy! I had no idea that not every funeral ended in the church foyer with everyone discussing who would go buy the beer!
(Nobody in my family is Polish; my dad's side is Chicago Catholics but weren't Irish or Polish, so my grandfather had to learn to polka if he wanted to meet ANY girls, because church dances were the only way and they all involved polkas, and the Polish (and Irish!) moms were not real happy to have this non-Polish/Irish boy wanting to date their daughters. My mom had to learn to polka to marry my dad, and she was like, "Oh, you just count '1-2-3-and' and let your grandfather throw you around, there's nothing to it." TRUE FACT.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:07 PM on September 8, 2020 [9 favorites]
I thought it was normal to sing out loud along with the music in stores
It was just a couple years ago that it sunk in for me that when people said, “I don’t like musicals because people don’t randomly break into song and dance in real life” that they really meant they had grown up without randomly breaking into song and dance around the house every day. Like, honestly that’s how they lived!!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:19 PM on September 8, 2020 [14 favorites]
It was just a couple years ago that it sunk in for me that when people said, “I don’t like musicals because people don’t randomly break into song and dance in real life” that they really meant they had grown up without randomly breaking into song and dance around the house every day. Like, honestly that’s how they lived!!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:19 PM on September 8, 2020 [14 favorites]
but lived in such a small town that he had to go to (gasp!) public school for high school (with like 30 people in his graduating class).
Well! I never thought I’d find a public school smaller than the one I graduated from (60 in my class).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:21 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Well! I never thought I’d find a public school smaller than the one I graduated from (60 in my class).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:21 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
I added a briefer version of this to the Twitter thread.
Years before we had children my wife and I took a trip to California. Somehow we started talking about the little round thingies glued to the middle of the road to mark the lanes, and over the course of a long afternoon somewhere south of Big Sur we invented an exhaustive backstory and mythology of these things, which we dubbed "road turtles." Much of this has been forgotten, but the gist of it was that the road turtles never move from the middle of the road because they are afraid of being run over by passing cars.
Even though we forgot the details, we've never forgotten the concept of the road turtles, and of course we passed it along to to our children. When I asked my 30 year old son what kind of weird family story he remembers most, he immediately named the road turtles, and said he was fully convinced it was true until he was ten or so.
posted by lhauser at 8:31 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Years before we had children my wife and I took a trip to California. Somehow we started talking about the little round thingies glued to the middle of the road to mark the lanes, and over the course of a long afternoon somewhere south of Big Sur we invented an exhaustive backstory and mythology of these things, which we dubbed "road turtles." Much of this has been forgotten, but the gist of it was that the road turtles never move from the middle of the road because they are afraid of being run over by passing cars.
Even though we forgot the details, we've never forgotten the concept of the road turtles, and of course we passed it along to to our children. When I asked my 30 year old son what kind of weird family story he remembers most, he immediately named the road turtles, and said he was fully convinced it was true until he was ten or so.
posted by lhauser at 8:31 PM on September 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
Presents on Christmas Eve are a normal thing in Poland, to the best of my knowledge (as an emigrant) -- that's when the main Christmas celebration is. I don't know how much of this is specifically Polish culture (vs Roman Catholicism).
The part of the thread about parents who were hands-off academically resonated with me -- my parents never interfered with my subject choices at school and later at university; they were left pretty much entirely up to me. I think this is partially because I went in a STEM direction while my parents are formally trained in the arts, but I guess mostly they assumed that it was my business and I knew what I was doing. While in retrospect I didn't always make the smartest choices, it all seemed to work out OK. I always found it deeply weird that other people's parents micromanaged their education.
posted by confluency at 2:06 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
The part of the thread about parents who were hands-off academically resonated with me -- my parents never interfered with my subject choices at school and later at university; they were left pretty much entirely up to me. I think this is partially because I went in a STEM direction while my parents are formally trained in the arts, but I guess mostly they assumed that it was my business and I knew what I was doing. While in retrospect I didn't always make the smartest choices, it all seemed to work out OK. I always found it deeply weird that other people's parents micromanaged their education.
posted by confluency at 2:06 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
For the staying-at-the-grave thing - some Jewish families actually prefer the mourners to FILL the grave. Like, we all shovel the dirt back in on top of the coffin, not just the symbolic two shovels full, or three, or well, there are a number of ways people do this. My family does not prefer to fill the whole thing, but I have participated in it more than once. So it does not strike me as weird to stick around. (Also, we do not pass the shovel hand to hand, but stick it in the ground between turns, so we're not passing death around. Yes, we are superstitious types.)
posted by wellred at 6:13 AM on September 9, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by wellred at 6:13 AM on September 9, 2020 [8 favorites]
@esoterrica: Oh, yeah - I forgot about the box of shoulder-length plastic gloves in the laundry room for calving season. Guess not everyone had those at the ready.
posted by jferg at 6:27 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by jferg at 6:27 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
I contributed one to the Twitter thread but remembered another one: My dad's side of the family was farm folk and Going Into Town was a serious thing and meant you had to bathe and Get Cleaned Up and put on Nice Clothes and be Presentable. Since they lived in the sticks, this meant every errand that required leaving the house required the full routine. Also, this was a full family occasion. My dad's side of the family also did their own projects and considered you a dangerous idiot if you did not, in fact, do all your own car maintenance and home repairs and whatnot.
As some of you may know, Projects like car and house repair frequently require multiple trips to various stores because you forgot something or didn't know you needed something. As a quick example, our AC went out over the weekend, so I had to run out to Home Depot and grab a portable unit until the repair guy could get here, then run back out and grab an AC-rated extension cord (Wal-Mart) so we could plug it in, then run out and grab some things we could put in the gap between the plastic thing and the top of the door to stop warm air from coming back in (Lowe's, just for variety).
So you can imagine what it was like when my dad and his folks started on a project, then after getting all dirty and sweaty building picnic tables or trying to fix the engine or whatever, you discovered you needed something. This required everyone to stop, go take a shower and put on clothes good enough to go into town, then get the whole gang together, drive the 30 minutes-1 hour to get TO Town, and go to the hardware store or Wal-Mart or the auto parts store, get what you needed, come back, change into Grubby Clothes (which you COULD NOT wear to town lest you shame the whole line), resume the Project, then discover you needed something else.
Frankly, I'm still suspicious of DIY projects because between the usual dad experiences (getting yelled at for not holding the flashlight right, getting yelled at for not having the tool knowledge of a salty old mechanic, etc.) and The Odyssey of Going Into Town, I anticipate everything taking up days and requiring lots of travel.
Oh, also, putting your feet up on anything except a designated foot stool was the mark of a feral creature, not even fit to be described as human. Lying down on the couch or leaning against the armrests with your legs or sitting with your legs folded/tucked up beneath you on the couch proper would surely destroy it.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:29 AM on September 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
As some of you may know, Projects like car and house repair frequently require multiple trips to various stores because you forgot something or didn't know you needed something. As a quick example, our AC went out over the weekend, so I had to run out to Home Depot and grab a portable unit until the repair guy could get here, then run back out and grab an AC-rated extension cord (Wal-Mart) so we could plug it in, then run out and grab some things we could put in the gap between the plastic thing and the top of the door to stop warm air from coming back in (Lowe's, just for variety).
So you can imagine what it was like when my dad and his folks started on a project, then after getting all dirty and sweaty building picnic tables or trying to fix the engine or whatever, you discovered you needed something. This required everyone to stop, go take a shower and put on clothes good enough to go into town, then get the whole gang together, drive the 30 minutes-1 hour to get TO Town, and go to the hardware store or Wal-Mart or the auto parts store, get what you needed, come back, change into Grubby Clothes (which you COULD NOT wear to town lest you shame the whole line), resume the Project, then discover you needed something else.
Frankly, I'm still suspicious of DIY projects because between the usual dad experiences (getting yelled at for not holding the flashlight right, getting yelled at for not having the tool knowledge of a salty old mechanic, etc.) and The Odyssey of Going Into Town, I anticipate everything taking up days and requiring lots of travel.
Oh, also, putting your feet up on anything except a designated foot stool was the mark of a feral creature, not even fit to be described as human. Lying down on the couch or leaning against the armrests with your legs or sitting with your legs folded/tucked up beneath you on the couch proper would surely destroy it.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:29 AM on September 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
When my kids were small, for no good reason I can recall, I started calling crab surimi / crab stick / faux crab: Fun Crab. And so my kids called it Fun Crab. And apparently grew up believing that it's real name was Fun Crab. And were brought up short, and DEEPLY aggro with me, when their friends explained that no, Fun Crab is not a thing, and where the hell did you get that from?
My mother referred to it as "sea meat." I don't quite know where she got that from--possibly something on the package back in the 80s? The phrase has stuck with me (even though nobody in my family will eat it except me so I don't get to talk about it very often).
posted by dlugoczaj at 8:55 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
My mother referred to it as "sea meat." I don't quite know where she got that from--possibly something on the package back in the 80s? The phrase has stuck with me (even though nobody in my family will eat it except me so I don't get to talk about it very often).
posted by dlugoczaj at 8:55 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Father you have provided SeA MEaT
I was interested in the matter of cakes, and it looks like there are differing opinions on the internet whether it is actually true that noise will damage a rising cake. What's agreed is that the definite problem is opening the oven door to check too soon, letting in cold air, and that the falling may have been associated with the slamming of the door rather than the air. In any case, it's largely a problem for egg-leavened cakes and souffles rather than the butter cakes kids crave.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:27 AM on September 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
I was interested in the matter of cakes, and it looks like there are differing opinions on the internet whether it is actually true that noise will damage a rising cake. What's agreed is that the definite problem is opening the oven door to check too soon, letting in cold air, and that the falling may have been associated with the slamming of the door rather than the air. In any case, it's largely a problem for egg-leavened cakes and souffles rather than the butter cakes kids crave.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:27 AM on September 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
Absolutely no overhead lights (mom would literally take the bulbs out) were used, except on the front porch. I thought everyone learned the the Gershwin/Cole Porter songbooks while blow drying their hair (which you have to do because wet hair results in pneumonia). Christmas dinner is never turkey, only beef. Breakfast is never consumed before ten on weekends. You have to announce the night before which section of the Sunday Times you expect to read first and from there it’s a bit of a lottery. Diet tonic water is a mortal sin. You should absolutey know what everyone wants to drink without having to ask, because, in general, asking is gauche. All compliments must be either snarked at or followed by a precise recounting of where it was purchased and at how great a discount. Broken and missing things will always be blamed on James Pineapple, an imaginary penguin butler who sleeps in the freezer at the bottom of the basement stairs
posted by thivaia at 9:45 AM on September 9, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 9:45 AM on September 9, 2020 [10 favorites]
My mother referred to it as "sea meat."
Fish and plankton, sea greens, and protein from the sea!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:12 AM on September 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
Fish and plankton, sea greens, and protein from the sea!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:12 AM on September 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
James Pineapple, an imaginary penguin butler who sleeps in the freezer at the bottom of the basement stairs
This is my favorite thing I have read on MetaFilter all week.
posted by kristi at 8:25 PM on September 9, 2020 [9 favorites]
This is my favorite thing I have read on MetaFilter all week.
posted by kristi at 8:25 PM on September 9, 2020 [9 favorites]
My stepmother believed as true fact that you couldn't eat seafood and dairy together. So did her entire family, and they never understood when I asked them where they learned that--they didn't learn it, they just knew it, because it was true (duh). I never believed it--I could eat ice cream after shrimp just fine!--but still absorbed it as something everyone else believed and was eventually shocked when I got older and started going to restaurants with creamy and/or cheesy seafood dishes on the menu.
And no, they weren't Jewish and likely had not met a Jewish person in their entire lives, so I don't even know.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:28 PM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
And no, they weren't Jewish and likely had not met a Jewish person in their entire lives, so I don't even know.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:28 PM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Oh and apparently my family made up "pezzle" to mean "poot"? (Or if they were being really extra, "pezzle a sezzle".) I didn't realize it for way too long, because people understood me when I said "Ew the dog pezzled" even if they'd never heard the word. But eventually I realized no one else ever said it, looked it up to figure out where it came from, and... nope. Apparently the family story is that it's from "the Spanish word 'pethel'" but... that is not a thing.
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:56 PM on September 9, 2020
posted by rhiannonstone at 9:56 PM on September 9, 2020
>>but lived in such a small town that he had to go to (gasp!) public school for high school (with like 30 people in his graduating class).
Well! I never thought I’d find a public school smaller than the one I graduated from (60 in my class).
87 in my senior class, but if I had stayed at my original HS, it would have been 13. We moved from $Big_City to $Literal_Ghost_Town. After move, we were on a party line deep into the 90s.
@esoterrica: Oh, yeah - I forgot about the box of shoulder-length plastic gloves in the laundry room for calving season. Guess not everyone had those at the ready.
I am sure it is not the same, but when I worked at KFC, we used these to make he bulk cole slaw. Cook would put cabbage, carrots, etc. into a big plastic container. Then, someone would pour dressing in there. At this point, when I was trained to do this, I was told, "put this on, use your arm to stir everything together. You are not done until your arm goes numb from the cold." (The dressing was kept in a pretty cold walk-in.)
I know my family (and me more than than the rest of them) have some weirdness/odd traditions, but I'll be darned if I can think of any, atm.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:23 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Well! I never thought I’d find a public school smaller than the one I graduated from (60 in my class).
87 in my senior class, but if I had stayed at my original HS, it would have been 13. We moved from $Big_City to $Literal_Ghost_Town. After move, we were on a party line deep into the 90s.
@esoterrica: Oh, yeah - I forgot about the box of shoulder-length plastic gloves in the laundry room for calving season. Guess not everyone had those at the ready.
I am sure it is not the same, but when I worked at KFC, we used these to make he bulk cole slaw. Cook would put cabbage, carrots, etc. into a big plastic container. Then, someone would pour dressing in there. At this point, when I was trained to do this, I was told, "put this on, use your arm to stir everything together. You are not done until your arm goes numb from the cold." (The dressing was kept in a pretty cold walk-in.)
I know my family (and me more than than the rest of them) have some weirdness/odd traditions, but I'll be darned if I can think of any, atm.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:23 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
As a child of two archaeologists, I didn't realise until quite late in life that having a) boxed up skeletons stacked in the dining room and b) human and animal skulls on bookshelves the way most people have vases was...non-standard.
posted by BlueNorther at 7:32 AM on September 11, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by BlueNorther at 7:32 AM on September 11, 2020 [5 favorites]
See link for a picture of my parents' wedding with Winnie the Mediaeval Skull in the foreground. Winnie was a wedding present from my mum's ex-boyfriend and pretty much set the tone for my upbringing.
posted by BlueNorther at 9:46 AM on September 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by BlueNorther at 9:46 AM on September 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
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Related, can polka.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:32 AM on September 8, 2020 [20 favorites]