23 Grandparents Who Are Way Cooler Than We Could Ever Hope To Be

While we don’t always think of older people as being “cool,” we have to remember that our grandparents were once young too and they were just as into fashion, technologies of the time, and cultural trends as we are today. Sure, things may have been different back then, but cool has been around for millennia. 

If ever you had any doubts as to whether your own grandparents were once dripping with swag, here are 26 examples of nanas, pop-pops, grandmas, grandpas, memaws and pepaws who were killing it in their younger years (and likely still are today). 

1. The granddad who taught Einstein to play the violin

My great grandfather gave Einstein violin lessons from r/pics

2. The granddad whose six-pack puts us all to shame

Grandma sent me a picture of my grandpa at my age to make me feel like shit. from r/pics

3. The samurai grandpa

My great-great grandfather, the samurai of a small coal mining town in Kyushu, posing with my grandmother and one of her sisters ~1900 from r/OldSchoolCool

4. The WWII welding grandma

My great grandmother, working as a welder during WWII from r/OldSchoolCool

5. The daredevil grandpa

My grandfather died today.  But this isn’t a misery-for-points post.  I want to tell you what a fucking badass he was.

6. This stylish AF grandma

This photo always puts a smile on my face. Our 86-year-old grandmother back in the day.

7. This angsty pre-war grandpa

my grandfather the day before he shipped out with the Marines, 1941. from r/OldSchoolCool

8. This grandma who taught men how to fly planes

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. from r/OldSchoolCool

9. This grandma who DGAF

I see your granduncle and raise you my grandmother. This picture was next to her coffin at her funeral (late 60s or early 70s) from r/OldSchoolCool

10. This crazy adventurous grandma on the wing of a plane

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…

11. This beautiful bombshell grandma

My Grandmother, 1940s from r/OldSchoolCool

12. This hilarious grandma and grandpa sharing clothes

My grandparents wearing each other’s clothes. (1943) from r/OldSchoolCool

13. This grandma who looks like she could be a catalog model

My grandmother right after she ran away from communistic Bulgaria to Germany (1978). from r/OldSchoolCool

14. This grandad in a chicken suit

My grandfather was into cosplay before it was “the thing to do”

15. This hot sailor grandpa

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. from r/OldSchoolCool

16. This cigarette-smoking, pants-wearing grandma

My grandma smoking her cigarette on the farm. Wearing pants and doing whatever the hell she wanted. 1938 from r/OldSchoolCool

17. This grandpa with a stolen Nazi car

WWII- my badass Grandpa with a car he stole from Nazis from r/OldSchoolCool

18. This super sexy grandma

I recently lost my grandmother to cancer. This will always be one of my favorite photo of her.

19. This badass horse-training grandpa

My great grandfather showing off one of the horses he trained for World War 1 – Petawawa, ~1922 from r/OldSchoolCool

20. This tiger-taming grandpa

If I could only be half as badass as my grandfather this Memorial Day, c. 1960 from r/OldSchoolCool

21. This air traffic controller grandma

My Grandma as an Air Traffic Controller. She would have been 97 on 3/11. from r/OldSchoolCool

22. This FBI agent grandpa

My grandpa’s FBI Academy photo. He worked as a spy recruiter during the Cold War. from r/OldSchoolCool

23. This WWII nurse grandma

My grandmother turned 98 this week. This is her in her full nursing uniform during WWII. from r/OldSchoolCool

More funny grandparents: