30 Nostalgic Dad Photos That Prove Our Fathers Were Cooler Than We Gave Them Credit For
There’s a specific photo of my dad from his twenties that comes out every few years, usually around a holiday, leaning against a car he couldn’t afford, wearing sunglasses he couldn’t afford either, looking like a guy who had his entire life figured out. He did not. None of our dads did. But the photos don’t know that, and that’s kind of why they’re so cool.
With Father’s Day coming up this weekend, the timing couldn’t be better for this batch from r/OldSchoolCool, a collection of nostalgic photos people have shared of their own dads being effortlessly, accidentally cool decades before any of us showed up.
1. “My dad and his beloved pet duck that he raised from an egg. 1994”
2. “My dad doing his best to celebrate my 2nd birthday in 1995, when it was just the two of us for a while.”
3. “My dad and friends look like the cast of Stranger Things (1982)”
4. “My dad when he first immigrated to NYC in 1986.”
5. “My dad at his first job at NASA! It is also his birthday today (1986)”
6. “My dad’s self-portrait, circa 1980”
7. “My dad taking a selfie, using a piece of wood to activate the shutter, circa 1957”
8. “My dad in the early 90s”
9. “My dad with the same bag he had when travelling india back in 1982”
10. “My dad (left) looking like a young Luke Skywalker, Chile, 1977.”
11. “My dad showing Mr. Rogers the process of designing toys on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood (1986)”
12. “My dad disguising himself to get in the yearbook twice (1980s)”
13. “My dad on this day 49 years ago, waking up after getting hit in the head with a croquet mallet to find out he was unconscious through the whole moon landing”
14. “This is a modeling shoot my Dad did on Mt Fuji, Japan, sometime in the eighties. He said it’s the coolest shoot he ever did.”
15. “Visual change due to Vietnam in my dad. 1968-1972”
16. “My dad and the Notorious B.I.G. circa 1996 when he visited my dad’s clothing store in Detroit, Michigan”
17. “My dad was Kelso 1973”
18. “My dad kind of looking like Chris Pratt in 1980.”
19. “Found this old picture of my dad from back in 1976. I feel like the picture captures an awful lot and tells a story. Figured this was probably the best place to share it.”
20. “My mom and dad, 1955. This was taken at her house prior to their first date. They were married for 60 years.”
21. “My dad and his veterinarian mother, with their pet lion which they raised for two years, 1959”
22. “My dad in the mid 80’s after finally saving enough money for his first car. He worked in the fields of California picking fruit.”
23. “My dad at 20 years old in 1978, 26 years before Napoleon Dynamite was released.”
24. “My dad sculpting a bust of my mom 1980s”
25. “Dad: Let’s take a picture that will make Mom angry 1970”
26. “My dads first day on the job, 1987”
27. “I just got my first apartment so I thought I’d post this pic of my dad in his first apartment in 1989”
28. “My dad and his dog (1970s)”
29. “Thought maybe you guys were getting tired of hot celebs. Here’s my dad and his buddy as mail carriers in Michigan in the early 70s”
30. “My dad was a Canadian hippy in the 70’s travelling the world, here he is in the Middle-East. He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and I have no doubt his many travels are at least partly responsible.”
