You never know how weird your upbringing truly was until you're in a room of people with their mouths agape, completely confused by a story you thought was normal.

While every region has its cultural nuances, there are some traditions so specific to a town, no one outside a 5 mile radius will understand what you're referencing.

In a popular Reddit thread, people shared the bizarre hometown traditions they didn't know were weird until they left.

1. mcbarksore eventually realized "happy haircut day" isn't normal.

Happy haircut day. Anytime someone would get a haircut, if you noticed you would say "Happy Haircut Day" and the goal was to be the first one to say it to them. Didn't realize this wasn't a normal thing until college lol

2. MotherOfKrakens95 used to get free snacks all the time.

In my childhood neighborhood, you could go to one house and get a handful of candy, a different house for a soda, another house for a cookie and yet another for a popsicle. Most of these people didn't have their own children, only the cookie house had kids but I think they were mennonite and homeschooled.

These folks just kept goodies around for the neighborhood kids, it didn't have to be Halloween or Easter, any old Tuesday afternoon was fine with them. Any time I've brought it up since, I've been told stuff like "You're lucky you didn't get poisoned or kidnapped" but the community I grew up in believed it took a village to raise a child and were just truly being good neighbors.

3. j8chi claps instead of ringing the doorbell.

Paraguay here, if a house doesn't have a doorbell, we just clap until somebody comes out. Edit: bad english

4. Hyperdrunk remembers the water balloon tradition.

In my home town on the last day of school middle schoolers would walk home rather than ride the buses. We'd walk for literally miles. The high schoolers would drive around and throw water balloons at the middle schoolers.

As a middle schooler there was a thrill in trying to make it home without getting hit, but as it was South Carolina in the summer, it was hot enough to where you really didn't mind getting hit.

As a high schooler it was fun trying to nail some middle schoolers.

It wasn't until I moved away that I realized it was unique to my home town. It was this fun bonding experience, walking home from school with your friends, dodging or throwing balloons, and it was all in good fun. It was so... innocent. A small town annual tradition.

5. saltsandsea lived in a town where cops and kids played hide and seek.

Not hometown but one I lived in for a long time. Pop. 1,000ish. I worked at the corner store over night. Every Tuesday night the police officer in town and a group of teenagers would play hide and seek with CB radios. He would come in for coffee all the time and the kids (I say kids, 18,19,20) would come in for cigs and snacks. The kids would plan all week for it, he wasn't ever really busy but liked to keep his weekends open.

Their rules were: 1. Has to be a legal driver 2. had to stay in the car while hiding 3.had to stay on the same channel 4. Stay off private property (not including the property they lived on) 5. Had to stay with in city limits 6. If he flashed you with the spot light you were out (9/10 they met back at the store)

One night we were talking about it and I told him how fun it sounded. He said it was, it kept them out of trouble, built a good relationship with the youngsters and let him know where all the hiding spots were in town!

They (police) also liked to shoot fireworks in the town centre at five oclock in the morning to keep the birds from hanging out on the power lines and pooping on people going to work. I almost sh*t myself the first time they did that.

6. MaryNope is used to seeing a horse trot through town.

Being 2nd or 3rd cousin by blood or marriage to almost everyone in town. Someone riding a horse or tractor through town. Everything closes on Sunday except the churches. People randomly stopping to ask you if you need a ride home if you're walking around, and not the creepy "free candy" kind of asking, but genuine "hey, how's your grandma? Need a lift?"

7. Janey_Cakes grew up "going corning."

“Going corning” on Halloween. You break the hardened kernels off an ear of dried corn, and go around the neighborhood throwing it at people’s doors and then hiding/running away.

Once I moved out of rural Pennsylvania, no one else had heard of it.

8. Lalexa29 didn't realize how strange the school was until they left town.

There’s a popular private Christian school in my home town that I attended. The school is in a church building with the church cemetery next to it and we ran for PE in the cemetery, had art in the cemetery and hung out in the cemetery at lunch . I thought this was normal until I went to public school ...

9. notasugarbabybutok remembers Tractor Day.

Tractor day.

Friday of homecoming week for our local public high school meant every farmer's daughter and son who knew how to drive a combine/tractor/etc would drive it to school and park in the teacher's lot.

10. Girliewhitepaws grew up with kitchen chickens.

Technically in my father's home town in the Ukraine. That it's not normal to keep chickens to roam freely round your kitchen at night.

11. IPeedOnTrumpAMA thought everyone honored deer season.

Apparently other places don't close schools for opening day of deer season.

12. Prepostertron told jokes to get candy.

Kids telling jokes door to door to get candy while trick-or-treating.

13. DanPanderson18 was related to a lot of their graduating class.

My graduating class (from one of the 2 high schools in the entire county) had 42 people.

I was related by blood to 7 of them and by marriage to 10 more.

My HS guidance counselor was also my Sunday school teacher and the leader oft he local Girl Scouts.

We have an annual mosquito festival.

It's 45 minutes to the nearest Walmart.

On the last day of Senior year, we drove around the school (it sits on a single block) in tractors/combines and one guy was on a riding mower.

Small towns in Arkansas are weird you guys.

14. laterdude's town was heavy on censorship.

Censorship

Our local TV station refused to air that NYPD Blue episode where the rest of the nation got to see Andy Sipowicz's bare ass. We also got all the n-bombs taken out of our copy of Huck Finn in school, he was Slave Jim to us. And when Kick Ass premiered at our local theater, we didn't even get dollar signs on the marquee, it instead read "Kick A**".

15. wistexowa paid the price for not being Catholic.

Elementary school (public), almost everyone was Catholic so on Wednesdays they'd let the Catholic kids out early to go to CCD at the private school.

Just me, a Jewish kid, and a Lutheran kid sitting in class for two hours every Wednesday afternoon for like a year.

16. queenmeme just found out squirrels aren't always rabid.

Squirrels can be nice in other places. My hometown is notorious for nasty squirrels. They regularly attack people, everybody has giant holes chewed through their garbage cans/mail boxes, etc. Idk anybody from my hometown who doesn’t think squirrels are the worst animals, but all my friends from other places are very neutral about them.

17. Jemcity didn't grow up with "duck duck goose."

In Minnesota we played duck duck grey duck, not duck duck goose.

18. dtorb grew up surrounded by the smell of fresh oranges.

The constant smell of Oranges in the air. I grew up where they bottle Tropicana Pure Premium.

19. WalkinAfterMidnight8 thought everyone had a Devilstrip.

I’m from a part of Ohio that calls the strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk a “Devilstrip”. It is only known as this in our town. Travel about 40 minutes outside of here and nobody will know what you’re talking about. Not sure how it started either.

20. mzvolanek loves a chili and cinnamon roll combo.

Pairing chili and cinnamon rolls together. Once I went to college outside of part of the midwest, everyone thought it was the strangest combo.

21. theycallmemomo's school shut down for Mardi Gras.

I lived in Louisiana as a kid, and schools actually shut down for Mardi Gras. Monday and Tuesday for parades, then Wednesday because everyone was either hung over, in church, or both. When I moved to Delaware and asked when Mardi Gras was, people looked at me like I had three heads. I found out that day that Mardi Gras isn't a national holiday.

22. Tubbyism's coworker is confused by the pleases.

Guy I work with is from Vegas, in Kentucky a lot of us say “please?” Instead of excuse me, or pardon, when if you didn’t quite hear what someone says. He said it took some getting used to. He’d be like, “please what?” Lol

23. unic0rnelius grew accustomed to sirens.

Playing outside on a Saturday and hearing the 12 o'clock sirens going off.

I grew up in a small town off of the Houston shipping channel, surrounded by chemical plants. Every other Saturday at noon the neighboring plants would test their warning sirens, and when I say "sirens" I mean literal sirens, like Silent Hill style blaring. But none of us thought anything of it, other than "oh it's noon, maybe mom has lunch ready inside".

24. LoveMissaKitty calls drinking fountains bubblers.

I got laughed at when I moved to North Carolina for calling a drinking fountain a bubbler.
Edit: I'm from central Wisconsin.

25. cyborgratchet is a honey dill person.

Honey dill. It's a dipping sauce that you serve with chicken fingers, and every restaurant has it and will usually offer it as the default dipping sauce if you order chicken fingers (or chicken tenders).

Only learned a few years ago that it's a Manitoba only thing.

26. cakerton feels strange looking back.

In 2 years, we had 2 student/teacher marriages that happened shortly after the student graduated. I wouldn't say I thought it was totally normal at the time, but looking back, it seems really messed up. We also had a teacher and student (a junior) living together, but since they were both female, it was assumed that the teacher was helping out a teenager in a difficult family situation.

27. Rintransigence doesn't miss moving day.

"Moving day" where a huge portion of leases are up for renewal on the same day. (It's awful)

28. pumpkingum's town weighs the mayor to make sure he isn't wasting their money.

We weigh our town mayor each year to see if he has been spending our taxes on pie. Learnt this wasn't the case for all towns when I went to uni...it really is a public get together in the town centre, crowds of people show up.

29. Terrapinyata86's town doctor was a pervert.

The doctor in my country hometown required people to strip naked for every procedure. Need a tetnus shot? Strip. Have a gash on your scalp that needs stitches? Strip. Immunizations due? Strip.

Later I found out that he only asked it of very young females, and almost everyone locally knew he was messed up but excepted his behavior, as no other GP would work in such a remote environment. Mothers who knew (and had the time) would insist on sitting in with his examinations, however I was from an even more remote location and he was the closest GP. I never knew.

I had my first city doctors appointment (for a prescription renewal) when I was 18 and immediately started to strip my clothing. I have never heard such a shriek of "No, no, No, please that is not required!!!!" Before or since.

30. Treebone_Dickrat had a guard donkey.

People using donkeys to guard their sheep and goats.

30 people share the weird hometown traditions they thought were normal until they left.