30 People Who Realized Their Parents Were Cooler Than Them

Could you believe that the stout gentleman in your backyard grilling burgers in a Hawaiian shirt and white sneakers was once a cool dude riding a chopper across Europe or wrestling Chuck Norris himself? We couldn’t either – if it weren’t for the photographic proof.

Bored Panda has compiled a list of people who realized their parents were cooler than they thought after finding some awesome vintage pictures of them. From crazy skateboard tricks to fishing off of nuclear submarines, looks like they sure knew how to have fun back in the day!

See the cool vintage pictures of peoples’ parent in the gallery below and check out more here!

h/t

#1 My Favorite Picture Of My Mom. She Was The Only Girl In Her Welding Class In 1984. Byrd High School, Shreveport, Louisiana

Image source: lizzyhaze

#2 My Mother Doing A Handstand On Two Skateboards (Circa 1980’s)

Image source: Nirokie

#3 My Mom Flew Helicopters For The Army In The 80s

Image source: completedesaster

#4 Chuck Norris Pinned By My Dad

Image source: LanaDelRayquaza

#5 My Dad At His First Job At Nasa!

Image source: sonokoroxs

#6 My Dad Diving Off The Starboard Fin Of A Submarine And Into The Pacific Ocean In The Summer Of 1983

Image source: MightyCornDog

#7 My Dad And His Veterinarian Mother, With Their Pet Lion Which They Raised For Two Years, 1959

Image source: ryanb99

#8 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

Image source: strawberrygnome

#9 My Mom Holding Myself Whilst Writing Her Master Thesis On The Macintosh Classic II (1991)

Image source: FrenchFriesGate

#10 My Friends Parents Are Celebrating Their 47th Anniversary This Week. Here’s Them Being Badasses In The 70’s

Image source: DoubleM515

#11 My Mom, Age 15, Smoking At An Allman Brothers Concert With A Broken Arm. Watkins Glen ’73

Image source: TheCKBandit

#12 My Mom In The Police Academy, 1984

Image source: hellooooo3

#13 1969 Vietnam: My Father’s Version Of A Selfie Before Selfies Were A Thing

Image source: mastiffmum

#14 My Mom Was A Homicide Detective In The 80s

Image source: gymbez

#15 My Parents In 1972 In Front Of Their Store In Paris

Image source: RobinThomass

#16 My Dad A Zoo Keeper In 1992

Image source: 8_Bit_Zombies

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.

#17 My Pregnant Mom At Gunpoint Trying To Get Home – May 1969 Berkeley

Image source: Leo_nardo

#18 My Father Who Shipped His Bike Over To England And Rode All Over Europe On It – 1973

Image source: lionhearted828

#19 My Dad’s Graduation Photo. Circa 1970’s

Image source: Mr_Goldfish0

#20 Mom Spinning Records At Kwkh, Shreveport – 1977

Image source: JonSmith12345

#21 My Mom As A Red Cross Volunteer In WWII. She Had Her Own Radio Show In The Pacific Theater To Counteract Tokyo Rose. 1944

Image source: Saved_by_punctuation

#22 One Of My Favorite Photos Of My Parents In The Late 70s

Image source: manderly808

#23 My Mom Fled Saigon In 1975. By The 90s, She Had Joined The US Air Force

Image source: cryptolingo

#24 Pretty Rad Picture Of My Dad When He Was 22, In Texas, Taken In 1987. That Ghettoblaster Is Epic

Image source: peter_nincompoop33

#25 My Dad Taking A Smoking Break While Fighting Saddam Husseins Army In The 80s

Image source: iAmReginaPhalange

#26 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)

Image source: kingngrfgt

#27 My Hilarious Father (With The Magazine) And My Grandfather, Grandmother, And Uncle At His Bar Mitzvah In 1972

Image source: JasonPlatz

#28 My Father Halfway Through Motorcycling Across Africa – 1980s

Image source: civil55

#29 My Dad Fishing… On A Nuclear Submarine 1966

Image source: vbisbest

#30 My Mom In The Hospital After Giving Birth To My Sister. Canada 1978. Smokes And Roasted Chicken

Image source: rookdanger