20 Oldie but Goodie Pics That Show Grandparents Looking Ravishing Back in the Day

Photography is like a time machine: it allows us to travel to the past and see how fashion, customs, and habits looked in happier times. This becomes especially relevant when we talk about the lives of our family members. There are many cases in which grandchildren and great-grandchildren can discover (or rediscover) a different facette of their own grandparents after stumbling upon an old forgotten picture hidden in the basement. They can identify with them, understand them, or simply take more pride in them, and that might be why they’re so eager to show these pictures to the world along with the stories behind them.

As a tribute to all grandparents and grandchildren alike, Bright Side wanted to share this collection of pictures that a few proud grandchildren uploaded onto Reddit to show how amazing their grandparents were and how neat and cool they looked in their youth.

1. “My great-grandmother, Iva Dell Ragan, in 1917”

She kind of looks like Gillian Anderson, who is also strikingly beautiful. © FuzzySire / Reddit

2. “My grandmother (left) and her sister (right), 1940s”

3. “My great-great-grandfather, who started a plumbing business that’s still going strong. St. Paul, Minnesota, 1886”

4. “Barranquilla, 1950: Get yourself a girl that looks at you the way my grandma looked at my grandpa.”

5. “Today, while sorting through my grandma’s attic, I happened to discover my great-great-grandfather’s Italian passport and a ticket to America exactly 100 years later!!”

6. “My suave grandpa from the 1940s”

7. “My great grandmother (on the right) turned 100 today. She had to cut her hair short and pretend to be a boy because, at that time, they didn’t allow girls into turkey shoots (circa 1927).”

8. “I think my grandfather was the inspiration for the kid on the cover of Mad Magazine (1940).”

9. “My grandma looking old school cool at the beach circa 1945 — she wanted to throw away a stack of these old photos because she didn’t think there was anything special about them.”

10. “I found this while cleaning out my nana’s condo. She recently suffered a stroke and is struggling with dementia, but when I showed her this she remarked, ’Look at that, wasn’t I something?’ and smiled (circa 1958).”

11. “My great-grandparents on their sixtieth wedding anniversary in Tulsa, OK, 1984”

12. “My grandaddy in the ’70s. He was the definition of fly!”

13. “Late 1940s — my young grandmother proudly posing with her homemade chicken dinner”

14. “My granddaddy at 14 years old — he shined shoes for nickels and dimes just to save up enough money to buy that suit for his school pictures.”

15. “This is my grandmother in Miami, 1962. I never got to meet her but I hope as her namesake, I’m as cool as her.”

16. “My grandmother, Spain, 1958”

17. “My abuelito looking all kinds of cool, circa 1983”

18. “My late grandpa and his twin working in aeronautics, 1959”

19. “Grandpa adopting an ex-military mascot dog, London, 1938”

20. “This is a final proof from a shoot for my grandma’s business card in 1992. She became a top-selling realtor across the company that year.”

These grandparents really knew how to have a good time, and without Instagram filters or smartphones, they managed to get shots of themselves that will remain in our memories forever. Do you have any pictures of your grandparents that are considered to be family heirlooms? Share them with us in the comment section!