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The biggest was finding out my dad rode with the Hells Angels. It was.... interesting meeting some of them at his funeral.
Another one was my was a concert pianist and my uncle made a form of aspirin we all take.
Finding out my mom did ballet too was weird.

Most stuff I found out talking with my dad last year.

My mum (now deceased) narrowly avoided being blown up in the Guildford pub bombings. She also got into a hell of a lot of trouble for participating in a Ouija board session in barracks. She once chased a police officer out of her flat armed only with a coat hanger as she thought he was a burglar.
My dad decided to join the army after a bad night and a bottle of Gin.
They both met due to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus... Thanks Turkey

Surely you should be thanking the gin?

Not my own parents per se, but There have been some hilariously "wtf" stories I got out of the last generation.

First one was that a group of them somehow managed to steal a tank and go on a joyride during a certain protest. They treated it like some hilarious binge drinking night gone wrong. I was, quite frankly (considering which protest it was) scared white.

Another one was my grandma apparently having eaten tiger meat at one point. This sounded less awesome (or cruel) than it is because 1.) it was back before anyone cared about "endangered" animals in china and 2.) said tiger had developed a taste for human meat (it was wild) and they had to put it down and did not want the flesh to go to waste. Then again this is the same woman who can drink two irishman and a russian under the table and then bike in a straight line (that is not a hyperbole in the slightest, I saw it happen) at the age of 70.

I have friends whose parents were smuggled out of Hungary (after Soviet occupation) in the boot(trunk) of a car.

My dad, who was born in Budapest, calmly walked to the airport and flew out. He had papers (not wanted by police, of good character) and a Dutch passport, so they couldn't keep him there.

This stunned my other Hungarian friends.

(During WW2 he was fostered out in the Netherlands and got his citizenship because of this).

I think my Mom holding my hand over a steam cooker at the age of 8 was quite a surprise to me...
Yeah...
Fun times...

My grandpa, who had parkinsons', shot himself in the leg while instructing my dad on firearm safety.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
My grandpa, who had parkinsons', shot himself in the leg while instructing my dad on firearm safety.

I suppose that counts as a productive lesson

I just remembered, my dad got his first job on the Delorean factory. He saw them coming together. But interesting point, the boss actually drove a Quattro.

Can you fit more coke in the boot of a Quattro?