When I was in college I shared a house with 5 guys.
When I was 5 my uncle, aunt and 2 cousins moved in for a year. There were 8 of us and a dog in our 1200-square-foot house.
I thought it was amazingly awesome to be able to share a room with my big brother (he was 7). I’ve always been a fan of his!
I do remember the experiment came to an end shortly after the episode where I climbed a tree and screamed bloody murder at my cousin and my aunt, who obviously must have been being bitches.
We had a fine relationship for 25 years after that, but oddly enough I don’t speak to either of them anymore (my uncle and my other cousin, we’re fine).
Oh, all right, when you don’t count a dorm then my answer is 5. Mom, Dad, Vynce, great-Grammy, and me. She had late-stage Alzheimer’s and we lived with her the last year of her life so my dying grandfather’s request that she not be put in a home was honored. She only outlived him by four months, but they were the longest four months of our lives.
There were a few thousand people in my college dorm.
Not counting military, it would be 10. Me, three sisters, mom, step-dad, there’s six. We took in my aunt and her three kids after a divorce, for about three months.
Aside from college dorms where at least 100 other guys were staying, the most I had was a boarding house in Birmingham one summer with maybe 30 guys.
I lived with my parents and my brother, but I don’t really remember it too much, so I just count my parents. There were 3 of us and I loved the space.
Now I live on my own and love it. I have a friend with a chaotic household full of people, and it drives me nuts.
I only have one brother, so growing up it was just my parents and the two of us. After I moved out, I had a roommate from time to time; at one point I lived with a couple.
Five years ago, after living by myself for nine years, I thought I could handle moving into a house with my friend and his fiance, and her brother, sister and sister’s boyfriend. I was 35, they were all in their twenties. It lasted four months. Never again!
In basic training we had 4 people in two sets of bunk beds to a 12X12 room, 8 rooms to a wing. One bathroom with 6 showers and toilets. HATED it.
Excepting the nuthouse and summer camp: my mother, two sisters and I lived with my aunt, uncle, their two young daughters, and my grandmother for about 6 months, in a 3-bedroom 1 1/2 bath house. My mom shared a bed with my grandmother, I shared the bottom bunk with my cousin, my sisters shared the top bunk. I don’t remember it feeling crowded at all.
Not counting the military or the homeless shelter, 11. Mom, Dad, and 9 siblings in a three (or was it four) bed two and two half-bath split level. Having at least one sibling not around is something of a tradition.
6 adult males (immature) in a one bedroom apartment.
I once had four roommates; never again will I share my abode with anyone.
For one summer right after college I lived in an 8-bedroom converted boarding house with 14 people. Lord knows who was on the lease. There were two bathrooms, plus a toilet and sink in the middle of a hall (which must have been knocked through for fire safety reasons). The fridge was a nightmare. I think I may have eaten every meal at a cheap Lebanese place across the street.
Personally, 7-Ma, Pa, Sis, Bro, Grandpa for my first 5 years, and an Aunt.
Militarily, several dozen, at Great Lakes Naval Training Station boot camp, and later on board *USS Springfield *(CLG7) in the flag allowance berthing area.
Does industrial type building turned prison camp holding about 200 people within 4 walls for 43 days count?
Two roommates at one point after I was out of college. Both female. This was in 1974, so I didn’t see any big deal when Three’s Company started airing.
We were basically poor as well. Vacation was usually one or two families going to live with a third for a week or two. The usual form had 6-7 adults and 9-12 kids in a three bedroom, one bath row house. Once when one branch of kin were having especially bad times they moved in with us making 5 adults and 7 kids in a three bedroom, one bath house for most of a year.
I don’t miss it because we still do it now and then when needed. During the floods and evacuations this summer we had 10 people in a three room apartment for most of a week and we still sometimes take joint vacations together with 10-20 of us sharing a house somewhere. We’re family, we love each other, we grew up with it, and that’s just how it is.
Well, for the sake of a good story, sure.
If we’re including dorm type situations, then it’d be 60 people for me for the most I ever lived with. 3 people to a room that measured 5’ wide by 8’ long. Bunks were assigned by who’d been in the room longest. The guy who’d been there longest got top bunk, the second guy got bottom buck, and the newest guy got the mattress on the floor by the toilet. I was the new guy in my room.
The dorm had 20 rooms like this, and us inmates were kept locked in those rooms from 10pm to 7 am through the week, and 11pm to 5 am on weekends. When the doors were unlocked, we had a common room that measured 20’ long by maybe 110’ wide. In this common area was 3 shower stalls with no doors and thin, flimsy curtains, 1 old dial operated tv with broken rabbit ears, and a picnic table.
We were let out of the dorm for 1 hour each day to go outside on a blacktop court, and once each Sunday and Wednesday evening for an hour for worship service. Even those of us who weren’t Christian went just to get out of that dorm.
I never did convince anyone that a prison library consisting of Harlequin romance novels and 40 year old National Geographic was cruel and unusual punishment.