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Whether we like it or not, most of us will become our parents one way or another - from something as small as the way they laugh or maybe something as profound as the same career path. Some of us crumble at the notion that we could share similarities with our less hip parents - but for the kids of the parents in these vintage photos, the levels of cool exuding from their older generation are something they can only hope to aspire to.
Bored Panda presents a new photo list of times kids came across old photos of their parents only to realize their parents were cooler than them. So scroll down below to check out some old-school photo treasures and upvote your favs. Maybe it will inspire you to ask your own cool parents to show you what they were like when they were young!
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#1
My Favorite Picture Of My Mom. She Was The Only Girl In Her Welding Class In 1984. Byrd High School, Shreveport, Louisiana
Generational differences - sometimes it's hard to get an explanation of what the older generations were thinking other than "It was a different time." Progress is great but what are some things older people may miss about their youth? First we have the style. There is a reason we love shopping at vintage stores - because compared with the some of the looks of today our parents had some pretty cool looks. But when did Americans decide to trade in their tailored slacks for leggings? Casual fashion went through many milestones to reach where it is today but in 1966 James Laver, a renowned historian of dress, told a group of fashion industry executives, “Clothes of the sexes are beginning to overlap and coincide.”
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#2
My Mom Flew Helicopters For The Army In The 80s
#3
My Mother Doing A Handstand On Two Skateboards (Circa 1980's)
Phoebe Bean 5 years ago
I´d say a handstand on one skateboard is quite impressive, but on two... just W O W.
Millennials may think they are the most connected generation with all of the various media platforms but this has caused less trust and isolation among these young people. According a survey 56 per cent of those aged 22 to 37 would trust an ordinary person in the street to tell the truth, compared to 77 per cent of baby boomers."Levels of social trust have been argued to be a strong predictor of national economic growth, levels of life satisfaction and suicide rates," it says.
#4
My Dad (Front) In Vietnam In 1971. He Didn’t Know This Photo Existed Until I Came Across It Randomly On The Internet. He Cried When He Saw It
#5
My Dad At His First Job At Nasa!
Cathleen Morris 5 years ago
Your Dad obviously brought a brain with him — and that era used slide rules and good old-fashioned brain power to create the space program. (And it was the women who programmed NASA’s first computers! Watch the movie “Hidden Figures”!)
Mary Rose Kent 5 years ago
For everyone talking about the lack of computers, there were definitely computers then—there just weren’t PCs. I worked as a word processor in the 1970s and 80s, and I was often the only one with a computer.
mild anxiety! at the disco 5 years ago
dun dun dun DUN dun dun dununuh dun dun dunDun dun dun dunuh DODODOO DODODO DODOO DODOo
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M O'Connell 5 years ago
Hey, most of the computation involved in then development of the Apollo program was done on slide-rules.
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M O'Connell 5 years ago
First job "At NASA" I'm sure his first-first job was much less glamorous.
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Joseph Brzezinski 5 years ago
I think the look on his face says... "Holy c**p, I can't believe I made it..." lol
Brandon Ruiz 5 years ago
OMG! Flashbacks. Check out the rolodex and the tear-away desk calendar. I also used to love playing with the magnetic tops of the paperclip holder.
We all have our vices - but maybe the younger generation has healthier ones. With anti-smoking campaigns like 'truth' smoking isn't as widely accepted and definitely not depicted in the 50's Mad Men style way. Our parents grew up in a different time though, for example ot wasn't until the 1990s that smoking on airplanes was banned completely.
#6
Chuck Norris Pinned By My Dad
#7
My Dad And His Veterinarian Mother, With Their Pet Lion Which They Raised For Two Years, 1959
Hipsters may think that they are a step ahead of the rest with their beards and man buns - but just as it is with their vintage fashion sense they must pay their respects to the pioneers of long hair fashion. Long locks on both men and women became a trendy look in the 1960s and 1970s, Before that you would have been side-eyed for your unruly mane.
#8
My Dad Diving Off The Starboard Fin Of A Submarine And Into The Pacific Ocean In The Summer Of 1983
#9
My Mom Holding Myself Whilst Writing Her Master Thesis On The Macintosh Classic II (1991)
Want to know why your parents are cooler than you? Because the things we think are trendy now began back in their day. Walk into any Urban Outfitters and you will see walls with vinyl records and record players. Well vinyl records were created in the 1950's and your parents definitely weren't using these discs for decoration - anyone feel like listening to the Beatles?
#10
My Friends Parents Are Celebrating Their 47th Anniversary This Week. Here's Them Being Badasses In The 70's
#11
My Mom Was A Homicide Detective In The 80s
Walkus-Andrew Andrea 5 years ago
I really like this one because so-called gender roles were still expected in the 1980s. Your mom is so confident in a career that is quite exciting. Kudos to her!
#12
My Mom, Age 15, Smoking At An Allman Brothers Concert With A Broken Arm. Watkins Glen '73
#13
My Parents In 1972 In Front Of Their Store In Paris
#14
1969 Vietnam: My Father’s Version Of A Selfie Before Selfies Were A Thing
#15
My Dad A Zoo Keeper In 1992
He was the only one at the time who could call the rhinos by name and they would come running like dogs. They enjoy a scratch behind the ear like dogs too.
Captain Marvellous ♥️ 5 years ago
Dude...now that is cool. It's amazing when humans and animals can reach a level of trust like that! If only the whole world was as kind as he was toward these poor creatures.
#16
My Father Who Shipped His Bike Over To England And Rode All Over Europe On It - 1973
#17
My Mom In The Police Academy, 1984
#18
My Mom As A Red Cross Volunteer In WWII. She Had Her Own Radio Show In The Pacific Theater To Counteract Tokyo Rose. 1944
#19
My Dad's Graduation Photo. Circa 1970's
#20
My Pregnant Mom At Gunpoint Trying To Get Home - May 1969 Berkeley
#21
Mom Spinning Records At Kwkh, Shreveport - 1977
#22
Pretty Rad Picture Of My Dad When He Was 22, In Texas, Taken In 1987. That Ghettoblaster Is Epic
#23
My Mom Fled Saigon In 1975. By The 90s, She Had Joined The US Air Force
#24
One Of My Favorite Photos Of My Parents In The Late 70s
#25
My Hilarious Father (With The Magazine) And My Grandfather, Grandmother, And Uncle At His Bar Mitzvah In 1972
Hello it Smee 5 years ago (edited)
His uncle face cracks up, could you imagine seeing this hung on someone's wall
#26
My Father Halfway Through Motorcycling Across Africa - 1980s
Paul Mcquaid 5 years ago
I know him!!! He was my married to my sister and they rode halfway around the world. He actually contracted malaria in Africa as well. Pretty sure my sister took this picture.
#27
My Dad Taking A Smoking Break While Fighting Saddam Husseins Army In The 80s
#28
My Mom Said She Gave This Up When She Had Me. I'm Pretty Sure She Stopped When I Was Old Enough To Want Some (1970's)
#29
My Dad Fishing... On A Nuclear Submarine 1966
#30
My Mom In The Hospital After Giving Birth To My Sister. Canada 1978. Smokes And Roasted Chicken
Jasmine Walker 5 years ago
Y'all worried about the cigarette, I'm sitting here looking at how great she looks after having a whole baby.
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What do you think ?
Biljana Malesevic 5 years ago
I envy those times. People knew how to live, and live each moment. They weren't stuck to their phones and gadgets, they weren't constantly TRYING to look like they are "cool", made up to look like dolls, and with made up fake smile somewhere "cool" like Idontknow, Hawai or Maldives? People just lived, without trying to prove anything to anyone, let alone complete strangers. We should just learn from this.
Lara L. 5 years ago
People tried to prove themselves back there the some as today. They just had different opportunities. There were more mobbing cases at school, more violence at home, the cold war going on ... Old times get often looked at with "pink glasses" (thats a german phrase to express, the way you see the world fluffy and beautiful when you are in love"
Load More Replies...
Rachael Marrast 5 years ago
Yeah because everyone was outside back then. I grew up in the 80's 90's and loved it. Now I see kids staying in the house with a phone and tablet. So sad.
Load More Replies...
Yaz Cam 5 years ago
I’ve learned teenagers looked older than their age and had a lot more freedom
Blathnaid O'Loughlin 5 years ago
Teenagers still look older than their age.
Load More Replies...
Stannous Flouride 5 years ago
In 1933 my mom got arrested for wearing one of the first two-piece bathings suits on Miami Beach. She's the one under the sign banning them. mommiami-5...75-png.jpg 
Carol Emory 5 years ago
I wish I had a pic of the time my Grandmother met face to face with a black bear. It wandered into our campsite at Mt Rainier when I was 5 or 6 years old. She hit it in the head with a camp chair and threw cans at it making as much racket as she could until the bear ran..... At her funeral..the preacher says "I understand there was an incident with a bear." Our whole family started giggling....
W. 5 5 years ago (edited)
My mom never had a "heroine" moment/snapshot. She was just working like crazy, caring for her younger siblings through wartime, then later working for us, her children, supporting us. Her only luxury item was a lipstick. Never complaint, not even after getting cancer. I dropped out of school to care for her her the last years. Never was able to gave her the life she deserved. I made it in life because of her example, her strength, but she died before I could treat her like I always wanted to since I was a little child .(I always told her I would buy her a house, a car, she would never have to work again...) And you know the astounding part? She was full of love, laughs and everything good. You would imagine her being stressed out, pulling 2 jobs and everything. But I remember us singing and dancing in the kitchen and laughing like crazy. She is my hero forever, though I can not show you one "cool" picture of her.
Alusair Alustriel 5 years ago
It's really interesting to see those. As a child I see my parents as parents. Those show them being my age, or younger, having a totally different life than what I know them of. It's really eye-opening to see how they all had awesome interests, were young and beautiful. Don't get me wrong, all I mean is that they also were our age and blossoming and we just know pretty much a fraction of them which devoted lives for children. Just like we will one day and we'll have photos left of our past and passions.
Kim Lorton 5 years ago
Wow. My only pet peeve, is smoking after giving birth, in a hospital! Times were different, but the anti smoking campaign was already saying then, do not smoke when pregnant or after , to protect your baby.
Stannous Flouride 5 years ago
In 1933 my mom got arrested for wearing one of the first two-piece bathing suits on Miami Beach. She's the one under the sign banning them. mommiami-5...5f-png.jpg 
jknbt jknbt 5 years ago
every generation thinks that it is the one that discovered "COOL"....nope, it's been around for quite some time... My dad's cool pic was when he was promoted to Major in the Army Air Force in 1945 at the tender age of 27. Do you millennials & gen-x'ers know how long it takes to make the rank of Major in the Air Force these days (assuming the let you stay, not everyone gets to stay in that long)? He had a really cool mustache that mom made him shave off when they married. His bomber crew called him "the old man" because he was seven years older than most of them. Miss ya, Dad, thanks again for the good job you did.
Jeff Ferguson 5 years ago
My dad, circa 1970-71, posing in front of the ambulance he used to drive back then. Sadly, he wasn’t on duty the night I was born, so my mother went to the hospital in something boring. 97BB56BC-4...97cb6.jpeg 
Guy Lacommé 5 years ago
Looks like in the past, people that smoked were cool. Looks like we still seem to think like that. If your mother is smoking a cigarette at an Alman Brothers concert, that's mainly stupid, and normal for those days, but it shouldn't be advertised as cool today...
Freya the Wanderer 5 years ago
People love to talk about the "good old days" while conveniently forgetting that they were not necessarily all that good. Sure, we have problems today - but we also have better technology, better health care, et cetera. The Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain are gone. Women and people of color are gradually making progress in many walks of life.
Karen Sarraga 4 years ago
My grandma, 84, wheelchair bound in a nursing home, bid on an auction item to ride the traffic copter over Phoenix, AZ. She won the auction and loved her adventure. Back in the 50’s my mom was driving dad’s hot rod and she pulled up next to a cop car on Woodward Ave. in Royal Oak, Michigan. They laughed at the her behind the wheel so she tapped the side of the car to signal she wanted to race. She left them in the dust when the light turned green. They were so stunned they just sat there.
Mary Lou Moad 5 years ago
Incredible. I was afraid of everything back then. So glad to see people my age back then, LIVING. But, I'm living NOW. That's the main thing!
Anna Kozłów 5 years ago
2010 Me and my Husband exercising racehorses on a racetrack :D Phew... I'm someone kinda cool too :D
prevent the toast 5 years ago
reminds me of surrender by cheap trick... Father says, "your mother's right, she's really up on things." "before we married, mommy served in the wacs in the Philippines." Now, I had heard the wacs recruited old maids for the war. But mommy isn't one of those, I've known her all these years.
Sam Harrison 5 years ago
I wish my kids had one of these pics. There are some but I would love to see them beam so proud over me...
Jo Choto 5 years ago
Help please, for the last week or so, I can only load the first six pictures of a post. After that, I get headlines and nothing else. I've tried using different browsers and reloading/refreshing the page to no avail. Can anyone help? Thanks.
Dennis Mahoney 5 years ago
Have you tried deleting your cache and browser history in whatever browser you are using? If that doesn't work, uninstall the browser app from computer---don't just delete it, but uninstall it. And then re-download a new copy and install that.
Load More Replies...
Darko Pešić 5 years ago
The more i look at pics from 60s,70s and 80s the more i envy people who were young back then... I almost fcking cried cuz i wast even born to be at the live aid..
Jaqueline Gillespie 5 years ago
I was a badass in the army for six years. It’s about the only thing my son admires now
Azure Adams 5 years ago
Yeah all of these parents are way cooler than their children and grandchildren ever could be combined. Some things were just better then... people were hopeful
Biljana Malesevic 5 years ago
I envy those times. People knew how to live, and live each moment. They weren't stuck to their phones and gadgets, they weren't constantly TRYING to look like they are "cool", made up to look like dolls, and with made up fake smile somewhere "cool" like Idontknow, Hawai or Maldives? People just lived, without trying to prove anything to anyone, let alone complete strangers. We should just learn from this.
Lara L. 5 years ago
People tried to prove themselves back there the some as today. They just had different opportunities. There were more mobbing cases at school, more violence at home, the cold war going on ... Old times get often looked at with "pink glasses" (thats a german phrase to express, the way you see the world fluffy and beautiful when you are in love"
Load More Replies... Rachael Marrast 5 years ago
Yeah because everyone was outside back then. I grew up in the 80's 90's and loved it. Now I see kids staying in the house with a phone and tablet. So sad.
Load More Replies... Yaz Cam 5 years ago
I’ve learned teenagers looked older than their age and had a lot more freedom
Blathnaid O'Loughlin 5 years ago
Teenagers still look older than their age.
Load More Replies... Stannous Flouride 5 years ago
In 1933 my mom got arrested for wearing one of the first two-piece bathings suits on Miami Beach. She's the one under the sign banning them. mommiami-5...75-png.jpg
Carol Emory 5 years ago
I wish I had a pic of the time my Grandmother met face to face with a black bear. It wandered into our campsite at Mt Rainier when I was 5 or 6 years old. She hit it in the head with a camp chair and threw cans at it making as much racket as she could until the bear ran..... At her funeral..the preacher says "I understand there was an incident with a bear." Our whole family started giggling....
W. 5 5 years ago (edited)
My mom never had a "heroine" moment/snapshot. She was just working like crazy, caring for her younger siblings through wartime, then later working for us, her children, supporting us. Her only luxury item was a lipstick. Never complaint, not even after getting cancer. I dropped out of school to care for her her the last years. Never was able to gave her the life she deserved. I made it in life because of her example, her strength, but she died before I could treat her like I always wanted to since I was a little child .(I always told her I would buy her a house, a car, she would never have to work again...) And you know the astounding part? She was full of love, laughs and everything good. You would imagine her being stressed out, pulling 2 jobs and everything. But I remember us singing and dancing in the kitchen and laughing like crazy. She is my hero forever, though I can not show you one "cool" picture of her.
Alusair Alustriel 5 years ago
It's really interesting to see those. As a child I see my parents as parents. Those show them being my age, or younger, having a totally different life than what I know them of. It's really eye-opening to see how they all had awesome interests, were young and beautiful. Don't get me wrong, all I mean is that they also were our age and blossoming and we just know pretty much a fraction of them which devoted lives for children. Just like we will one day and we'll have photos left of our past and passions.
Kim Lorton 5 years ago
Wow. My only pet peeve, is smoking after giving birth, in a hospital! Times were different, but the anti smoking campaign was already saying then, do not smoke when pregnant or after , to protect your baby.
Stannous Flouride 5 years ago
In 1933 my mom got arrested for wearing one of the first two-piece bathing suits on Miami Beach. She's the one under the sign banning them. mommiami-5...5f-png.jpg
jknbt jknbt 5 years ago
every generation thinks that it is the one that discovered "COOL"....nope, it's been around for quite some time... My dad's cool pic was when he was promoted to Major in the Army Air Force in 1945 at the tender age of 27. Do you millennials & gen-x'ers know how long it takes to make the rank of Major in the Air Force these days (assuming the let you stay, not everyone gets to stay in that long)? He had a really cool mustache that mom made him shave off when they married. His bomber crew called him "the old man" because he was seven years older than most of them. Miss ya, Dad, thanks again for the good job you did.
Jeff Ferguson 5 years ago
My dad, circa 1970-71, posing in front of the ambulance he used to drive back then. Sadly, he wasn’t on duty the night I was born, so my mother went to the hospital in something boring. 97BB56BC-4...97cb6.jpeg
Guy Lacommé 5 years ago
Looks like in the past, people that smoked were cool. Looks like we still seem to think like that. If your mother is smoking a cigarette at an Alman Brothers concert, that's mainly stupid, and normal for those days, but it shouldn't be advertised as cool today...
Freya the Wanderer 5 years ago
People love to talk about the "good old days" while conveniently forgetting that they were not necessarily all that good. Sure, we have problems today - but we also have better technology, better health care, et cetera. The Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain are gone. Women and people of color are gradually making progress in many walks of life.
Karen Sarraga 4 years ago
My grandma, 84, wheelchair bound in a nursing home, bid on an auction item to ride the traffic copter over Phoenix, AZ. She won the auction and loved her adventure. Back in the 50’s my mom was driving dad’s hot rod and she pulled up next to a cop car on Woodward Ave. in Royal Oak, Michigan. They laughed at the her behind the wheel so she tapped the side of the car to signal she wanted to race. She left them in the dust when the light turned green. They were so stunned they just sat there.
Mary Lou Moad 5 years ago
Incredible. I was afraid of everything back then. So glad to see people my age back then, LIVING. But, I'm living NOW. That's the main thing!
Anna Kozłów 5 years ago
2010 Me and my Husband exercising racehorses on a racetrack :D Phew... I'm someone kinda cool too :D
prevent the toast 5 years ago
reminds me of surrender by cheap trick... Father says, "your mother's right, she's really up on things." "before we married, mommy served in the wacs in the Philippines." Now, I had heard the wacs recruited old maids for the war. But mommy isn't one of those, I've known her all these years.
Sam Harrison 5 years ago
I wish my kids had one of these pics. There are some but I would love to see them beam so proud over me...
Jo Choto 5 years ago
Help please, for the last week or so, I can only load the first six pictures of a post. After that, I get headlines and nothing else. I've tried using different browsers and reloading/refreshing the page to no avail. Can anyone help? Thanks.
Dennis Mahoney 5 years ago
Have you tried deleting your cache and browser history in whatever browser you are using? If that doesn't work, uninstall the browser app from computer---don't just delete it, but uninstall it. And then re-download a new copy and install that.
Load More Replies... Darko Pešić 5 years ago
The more i look at pics from 60s,70s and 80s the more i envy people who were young back then... I almost fcking cried cuz i wast even born to be at the live aid..
Jaqueline Gillespie 5 years ago
I was a badass in the army for six years. It’s about the only thing my son admires now
Azure Adams 5 years ago
Yeah all of these parents are way cooler than their children and grandchildren ever could be combined. Some things were just better then... people were hopeful
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