It just so happens that we only know our grandparents once they’ve reached their senior years. This can quite easily give the impression that our grandparents have always been the sort to spend all day knitting, watching TV, drinking cups of tea and trading neighborhood gossip.
It might be hard to imagine a time when your grandparents were as young as you are now, but it did happen! If you want an idea of what your parents were like when they were young, just ask them to bring out their old photo albums – you’ll find all the proof you need that they were actually pretty cool.
In many ways, the era that our grandparents grew up in was much cooler than ours. Teenagers and young adults didn’t spend hours practicing TikTok dances or watching rom-coms. There was more glamor, danger and excitement than most of us could even begin to imagine.
If you need some convincing that your grandparents were cool when they were younger, these 45 photographs should speak for themselves…
1) “Last year I posted a pic of my Granny on the wing of my Dad’s cropduster plane ‘seconds’ before takeoff and people didn’t believe it…”
2) “I see your granduncle and raise you my grandmother.”
@Zef Rose:
“That is perfect. Extremely inspirational. I intend to sit for my funeral photo ASAP!”
3) “My grandmother right after she ran away from communistic Bulgaria to Germany (1978).”
“I’m imagining this woman crossing through Check Point Charlie hidden in the trunk of a Trabant and the first thing she does is hop out and do this photoshoot for Chanel.”
4) “My grandfather the day before he shipped out with the Marines, 1941.”
“Lots of girls would like to get a time machine, go back in time, and become your grandma.”
5) “My Grandmother, 1940s”
@middlefingerpuppet:
“I knew from the moment the dame walked through the door she was trouble– trouble with a capital T. She was what I call a “coffee pot client.” Too hot to handle but boy, does she perk you up.”
6) “Photo of my grandfather exiting his plane after getting shot down.”
@gettingthere52:
“From what my dad told me was that when his plane was shot, it was leaking fuel so he had the ability to escape from fire. He tried to make his way back to ship but fell short and one of the photographers on the ship snapped the photo.”
7) “My granny – nicknamed Kidd – wasn’t allowed to join the Air Force because she was a woman. So she taught young men to fly in Stephenville, TX during WWII – 1940’s.”
@bkk-bos:
“My grandmother had a similar job: Flying B17’s from Bangor Maine to England via Greenland and Iceland. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that they were finally given credit due and recognized as veterans, eligible to receive benefits.”
8) “My grandparents wearing each other’s clothes. (1943)”
9) “My great grandfather gave Einstein violin lessons.”
10) “Grandma sent me a picture of my grandpa at my age to make me feel like shit.”
@geetarzkool:
“Grams and Gramps were bangin’ like bunnies. Ewww…… Then again, can you blame her? But still, ewww……”
11) “My great-great grandfather, the samurai of a small coal mining town in Kyushu, posing with my grandmother and one of her sisters ~1900”
12) “My great grandfather showing off one of the horses he trained for World War 1 – Petawawa, ~1922”
@didiams:
“Looks like he’s trying to escape an evaporating world.”
13) “My grandmother with then-Mercury 7 astronauts John Glenn, Gus Grissom, and Alan Shepherd (September 14th, 1959)”
@leaningonalamp:
“That’s Suzy Parker, the first supermodel! Your grandmother was Suzy Parker?!!”
14) “I recently lost my grandmother to cancer. This will always be one of my favorite photo of her.”
@MasInMancy:
“My grandfather just looked over my shoulder and saw this and said, “Hubba hubba.” You have the Bamps seal of approval. Congrats.”
15) “WWII- my badass Grandpa with a car he stole from Nazis”
16) “My grandma smoking her cigarette on the farm. Wearing pants and doing whatever the hell she wanted. 1938”
17) “My very cool grandpa in the 1950s holding a fish, smoking a cigarette, with a book tucked into his pants and cigarette pack in his sleeve.”
18) “My grandfather was into cosplay before it was “the thing to do”
19) “My Crazy Grandfather”
“This is my crazy grandfather. Hands down, the funniest old coot that’s ever existed. On his deathbed, he told us (his grandkids) “Don’t be cheap. Spend 25 cents and buy the paper. The Times promised me a big spread.” He worked as a photographer for the LA Times for 50+ years and had many famous photos, including the first published photo of an atomic bomb explosion.”
20) “My favorite picture of my grandmother. 1942.
“She’s strong, raised six children on her own after leaving an alcoholic husband. Worked 7 days a week as a cook in a gas station from 3 am – 5pm. I would stay every weekend with her and sleep on the floor of the gas station back then. She’s amazing.”
21) “My grandma modeling in her flight attendant uniform – 1972”
@HonkersTim:
“Back in the old days people could and did take guns with them on international flights. e.g. if they were going on safari.”
22) “This photo always puts a smile on my face. Our 86-year-old grandmother back in the day.”
23) “My Finnish grandfather smoking a cigarette and holding a wild fox that he befriended. (Circa 1975)”
24) “My grandfather’s badass swandive (1930)”
25) “My Grandma as an Air Traffic Controller. She would have been 97 on 3/11.”
MtStAsshole:
“Your grandma looks like the kind of woman who would have seduced a private investigator and then shot him when he fulfilled his purpose…compliment, by the way.”
26) “My Great Grandpa Eddie. Omaha 1939”
@mudo2000:
“He looks like he wants to sell me something he knows damn good and well doesn’t work the way he advertises it.”
27) “If I could only be half as badass as my grandfather this Memorial Day, c. 1960”
@HATEPRIDE:
“Your granddad was SF [special forces]. Regular conventional troops wore OD Green uniforms. That tiger stripe uniform was experimental at the time, and was issued only to SF/LRRPs and ARVN SF. Just by seeing the uniform I can tell your grandad was a physically and mentally tough man.”
28) “My grandma recently passed. My Grandpa sent me this picture so I could know what man looks like when he is in love. They were married 60+ yrs.”
@pepinlo:
“Her face, she knows he’s nervous and she knows he’s trying, she knows it’s love.”
29) “My grandfather died today. But this isn’t a misery-for-points post. I want to tell you what a fucking badass he was.”
“My grandfather died of a sudden heart attack today. He lived a long, awesome life. When he was a little kid, a bakery hired him to chase bats away from their loading dock. He had bad teeth as a teenager, so the dentist pulled a bunch of them without anesthesia… When the Korean War started, he joined the Navy as a diver. He worked off Key West, and when a test pilot would crash he had to dive and recover the pilot, living or dead.”
30) “My great grandmother, working as a welder during WWII”
@itsakidsbooksantiago:
“My grandma was a welder during the war too! She loved it. Said it was just like sewing.”
31) “My grandmother turned 98 this week. This is her in her full nursing uniform during WWII.”
@thom wentworth:
“Bad ass girls that kept the guys alive. A blessing to their country.”
32) “My grandfather defusing a bomb on MLK’s porch. He was buried three years ago on MLK Day.”
@scarabrae:
“The 1950s: when people defused bombs at night while wearing street clothes while other people shot flash photos.”
33) “The last photo in my grandparents wedding album (1954)”
34) “My grandmother demonstrating the Three-point belt as a model for Volvo in 1959”
@dethskwirl:
“I am now realizing that old women have that hairstyle because it was fashionable when they were young, and not because all old women just have to.”
35) “My grandpa’s FBI Academy photo. He worked as a spy recruiter during the Cold War.”
@his_rotundity_:
“Must have been when the Bureau was prototyping the iPhone 8.”
@sw00n:
“I never realized how much it looked like a smartphone. Will interrogate my dad about any connections with time travel he might have had ASAP.”
36) “My grandmother on her Harley in 1926”
37) “So, my grandpa was apparently a badass”
@TOM_CRUISE:
“Back when men were men and the bears knew it. Now, they’d chew your pansy ass as soon as they got a look at that aftermarket “gel” seat.”
38) “My grandparents in 1960, on a date. My favorite picture.”
@afungusamoungus:
“It looks like he’s got her sun glasses and candy cane, and she’s got his cigar and liquor!”
39) “Grandmother died last week, she was a naval nurse. These are some pictures from WWII.”
@blingranger:
“Ted: It’s a history report, not a babe report. Bill: Ted…those are historical babes!”
40) “My great-grandmother in her new car. She was most likely the first Indian woman in the western US to own a car. April 7, 1916.”
@Zugwat:
“As a little tidbit: She got the car before she got her driver’s licence. She never even considered having a licence until she was about to get fined for not having one.”
41) “Don’t mess with my great grandmother Emma Hagen, woman homesteader in North Dakota. 1910’s”
42) “My grandma (top) was a badass in WW2 (1940s)”
@hans:
“Back when Engineering was not considered a “male” job. The same fate that computer science took in the 1970s.”
43) “I would always call my Grandmother on Mother’s day, and have missed that call for a few years now. Thought I would share this in her honor.”
@arrestedthought:
“Watching her on her toes gave me a Charlie horse.”
44) “My grandfather after winning 1st place in the county beard contest. The hat was his prize. Circa 1954”
@goodtimebutterfly:
“All hats should be obtained this way!”
@Mainehammer207:
“I remember in my day, you weren’t a man until you earned your first hat. I earned my first hat when I was 13, kids these days get a hat for just competing!”
45) “My grandmother with Sultan, her favorite lion from her troop, in front of her plane she flew just after WW2. 1947.
“What? Was she like a lion training fighter pilot commando spy model?”
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