Holy moly, that sounds like a very unpleasant basement to have to deal with.
“Whelp, time to do laundry. The fun part is when the creepy mutant spider cricket launches itself at my face, yay!”
Clearly I was very lucky. I highly doubt the tenants ever used the place either. It just belonged to the crickets.
Oof, that sucks.
I kept expecting one to jump from the walls above me as I went downstairs, get into the back of my shirt, and get squished as I try to get it out. It’s happened with house centipedes, and it’s not fun. Especially when their legs keep moving after their dead.
Well, probably not what you’re looking for but I used to work yard maintenance for a property management company.
I was sent to rake and tidy up the back yard of some house. In the back, there was an entrance to a root cellar that was separate from the house and had crappy wooden doors covering it. I was told to open it up and sweep the steps leading down to the cellar.
I don’t have a problem with dark places, or bugs. But that was the first time I’d seen camel crickets. They were big, hump backed and striped. And there were dozens of them. I dutifully swept the steps, from the dead center of them, my eyes darting around constantly trying to gauge whether or not the weird ass bugs were about to launch themselves onto me. They didn’t. They were super chill.
I told my dad about it later and he laughed at me for not knowing what the crickets were because they were so common. I’ve only seen a few more since then, and they still kinda weird me out.
I don’t know why, but the sticker still being on the axe is the best part to me.
For decades there was a funeral parlor down the street from my house. Right in the middle of a busy residential neighborhood in the city. There’s only on-street parking and they had two spots in front of their building reserved for funerals. Only no one ever parked there. No cars, limos, hearses, anything. A neon open sign turned on every day over their door but no one ever came or went.
My parents had a tenant who was an elderly gentleman with few relatives. When he died, my mom called the parlor to arrange the funeral but no one answered. She left a message on their machine but no one ever called back. We weren’t fully surprised because we’d been calling it a front for years, but mom was unconvinced until then.
The building got fully renovated a few years ago and we actually saw a funeral taking place, so they’ve upped their game.
My dad and I were shopping at Home Depot one December and found a small Christmas decoration I wanted. When we got it to the register the cashier couldn’t find a tag or sticker on it. Normally I’d go get another one with a tag but this was the only one they had. The cashier tried looking it up through the computer system but still couldn’t figure it out. She handed it to us and told us it was free because it was the store’s fault that she couldn’t find the price.
We’ve been enjoying that decoration for years, my mom still puts it in the middle of her kitchen display. And we always remember how nice that cashier was to us.
Oh my God. My family quotes that all the time and I had no idea where it was from. My parents loved Dave so that makes since. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
Do, do, do do do do, da do do do do do do, do Do do Do do do do KIKIWAKA!
I’m okay with it, at least it’s upbeat =)
“(looking at you, Washington DC)” I was raised in DC and can confirm that my family and all the neighbors I know rely on bottled or filtered water. We only used the tap to cook with.
Haha, that’s great, your MIL sound fun. We’ve all been ‘bunny’s assistant’ over the years (helping to buy stuff) but maybe next Easter mom will get her own basket!
My siblings and I are all in our 30s and we still get visits from the Easter Bunny. We go through our baskets in front of our mom and talk about how much we enjoy our gifts from ‘the bunny’. I wasn’t able to be with my family this year so my Easter basket shower up in a FedEx box. Chocolate is chocolate, I’ve got no problems with this tradition.
Yikes. Well, at least is was mostly just a fun holiday tradition 😬