I didn't figure out those were bathtubs until I was about 30 years old.
And just because I have to admit to this too...I also grew up in a house with a commode in the basement (freestanding, with a tissue holder contraption welded to one of the posts that held up the beam, the seat was replaced with a snazzy avecado colored one in about 1978...I never, ever used it--I always thought the basement was creepy). We had no dryer, but the traditional clotheslines in the basement. We also had a coal cellar (where my dad kept his snow tires--mom didn't want them near the clean clothes). You can't make this stuff up...