People Are Sharing Pics Of Life 50-100 Years Ago And They Might Put Things In A New Perspective
The easiest way for us to get a glimpse into the good old days is to open up our family's photo album. But what if we go through the images and instead of calming down our curiosity, they only fuel it? Easy. We open up the subreddit r/TheWayWeWere next.
It's a place where folks share pictures from 50, 100, and even more years ago to show what everyday life looked like in the past. Featuring old photos, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes, this subreddit has become one of the biggest vintage archives online.
Continue scrolling and check out why 528K people subscribe to r/TheWayWeWere.
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Mary Wallace: First Female Bus Driver For Chicago Transit Authority (1974)
My Ridiculously Attractive Grandparents Sitting For A Portrait In The Early 1940s
The last 100 years have produced profound changes in human history.
Wars, technological developments, progress in civil rights, and breakthroughs in science and medicine, the old world has been swept away. Whether it's for better or worse.
Centuries-old empires crumbled as new ideologies – like communism and fascism – took over in many parts of the world. Wars in the early part of the 20th century put an end to the colonial world and gave birth to new nations. However, these wars also cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars.
My Mom On Her Wedding Day November 1951
Cats Blackie & Brownie Catching Squirts Of Milk During Milking At Arch Badertscher's Dairy Farm In Fresno, California, 1954
Throughout the past century, technological innovations have transformed our lives in ways we never dreamed of. Progressive ideas emerged and changed the world as women, African Americans, and the LGBTQ community demanded, and often won, equal rights; from the ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States to the legalization of same-sex marriage in many countries. But recent civil rights conflicts tell us the fight for equality is not over.
A Native American Girl Of The Kiowa Tribe, Oklahoma, 1894
My Great-Great-Grandmother Sometime In The 1890s
The pandemic that began ravaging the world in 2020 reminds us that even though we can buy a ticket to go to space, we're still vulnerable to viruses that can shut down economies and disrupt society.
People are hoping science can save Earth from the devastating changes to the climate that continue to imperil the ecosystems of our planet. In the coming years, natural disasters may have an increasingly impactful role in the course of history. Who knows where we will end up in another 100.
Protesting The High School Dress Code That Banned Slacks For Girls, Brooklyn C.1940
Story Time! My stepdad's mother, who is around 97ish right now, she's also from New York. She told me how she started wearing jeans as soon as she could, she loved them. She answered the door for her first date with some guy wearing jeans. He said he'd wait while she went to change, she said change what? He said you're not going out with me looking like that, so she told him, you're right, I'm not going out with you and shut the door on him. That was a huge deal back then, and I can see her doing something like this, she could actually be in this picture for all I know.
Hooray for your grandma. Apparently dad liked his spouse in jeans. Two early-20th-century pioneers, woohoo! Wonder if they marched for feminism...social, economic, legal & political equality. Sartorial =ity, too.
Load More Replies...First one in facing the camera directly with the vest -- she looks like she is the COOLEST person on the planet and I 100% want to now what her life was like
Me 2 My first thought was she's hard-core I wish there was a way 2 find out about her life
Load More Replies...These young women were true trend setters They each already have their own style and they look so beautiful
I couldn't wear pants to school until I was in 6th grade. Only dress pants. It relaxed over time but i don't remember wearing jeans.
Katherine Hepburn always wore slacks to the studios which the big bosses hated!!
I live in Scotland and we weren't allowed to wear trousers to school in the 80's/early 90's. Not much fun in the snow or stormy winters
In my first job after college I worked in a hotel where women were not allowed to wear pants at all. (Unless they worked at the pool or golf course) I had to wear a skirt and pantyhose every single day - even though I worked in the administrative area and no guest ever saw me. And this was 1997/1998, not the 60's!! It was ridiculous and completely sexist.
Not a very effective protest. We still couldn't wear pants in the 70's.
Had a school with dress code assistant principal used to go around and run the girls upper legs to make sure they were not wearing denim jeans after the dress code was changed so we could wear dress slacks only told him if he touched me he'd take back a stump he sent me to his office but I went to our superintendent office instead and told him what was going on it stopped an we could wear what we wanted (the assistant was fired)was in Iowa in 1969
Dress codes for public schools are soooo stupid. Still fighting them today.
Imagine: girls couldn't wear slacks in 1st grade...or even high school 'til the 1970s in the U.S. We like to bend over, climb hills/stairs/ladders just like the guys. Why do so many female TV newscasters [incld'g awful a.m. shows] still wear silly dresses/skirts? Women need to spread their legs just like guys do~~& they have junk that sticks together [they should be wearing skirts!]. HELP!
took until 1968 or so to get rid of that one.. i hate wearing skirts!
SOOOO Cool! Standing up for their rights, had to be Lil scary for them, Leigh from DE
.... that's because it was considered a sin to wear that "which pertains to a man".
In my '50s high school slacks were banned because they made it easier for girls to carry weapons. Manual High, Denver.
And now girls will have to protest to wear dresses at a Texas school. How things change, and yet remain exactly the same.
Gosh, we weren't allowed to wear slacks even in 1971 when I graduated high school. And you had better wear socks or nylons with your shoes or you would get called out on it.
It's funny that women couldn't wear pants when men are the ones with genitalia that show.
My husband and I were in London in 1969 and went into Simpson's restaurant where I was told - in 1969 - I could not enter "wearing trousers" - fortunately I was wearing a thigh length tunic over my "trousers" and just took the pants off and had a mini-dress. There were perfectly OK with that. 1969, yeah!
Women's pants were so unflattering but so glad this generation paved the way for the rest of us.
My grandmother was born in 1900 and wore trousers when fishing and camping only. My mother was born in 1924 and wore pants for hunting, fishing, camping, or whenever the day required it. I was born in 1956. They tried to make me wear dresses, but from about age 14 on I primarily wore jeans. You go girls!
Nothing has changed, girls that are pro change are always looking the same way, a little freaky for their time 🤣
The one in the vest looks a bit like Scarlett Johansson, IMO, or maybe Laura Prepon. The rest could be my Mom and her friends. As for the dress code: I'm from the era of miniskirts and bellbottoms; the wars over boys' hair and girls' legs, ad nauseum. It's hard to believe kids and their parents are still fighting this battle today, but here we are. Mom-and-Da...f506e4.jpg
It was the '70's when we finally got the 'ok' to wear our bell bottom blue jeans in high school.
Even in the 1960s women wearing slacks was a BIG thing. I can remember my late mom (who wasn't even alive in 1940) telling me how ca. 1969 her work place finally started allowing women to come in to work wearing slacks/trousers and all the women in the office talking to each other the day before the dress code changes took place demanding that they all wear trousers to work the next day so that no woman would end up the only woman walking into work the next day wearing them. Fast forward to when I was a small child in the mid '80s and I remember my mom owning many pairs of trousers and wearing them to work on a regular basis and my being able to wear jeans to school during non-uniform days in the late '80s - late '90s. The badass feminists of the past made that all possible.
30billionth verse same as the first a little bit louder & a little bit worse!
Good trouble! Protesting for equality comes in many forms. So glad pants on women isn't looked down on like this anymore!
I graduated from Hollywood High in 1964 and we were not allowed pants at all. No bare legs - only stockings & garter belts or at minimum 'Peds' (shoe liners). Nowadays short shorts, cutoffs, tank tops, flip flops and hoodies. Things change.
I burst out laughing at the one guy's face in the upper right of this picture. LOL!
My high schools in late 1960’s and early 1970’s also banned slacks for females. One was an all-female school!
This is absurd, at least the girls are covered, now they attend school half dressed !!!
These girls had my 1968 High School Grad. class beat. It wasn't until my senior yr. 1968 that my class could wear jeans on Friday. Can you imagine. And the school before that we had to wear Middie outfits that made us look like 13 yr. old sailors. OMG how far we have come
Julia, Suzanne, Ozacoter, Ben's mom, Laura, Vicki, Kelly, Dee, mamafrog, Deborah, Gillian, Otter, Auntriarch~~'Cuz control-freak male superintendents, principals, teachers didn't want a girl's perineal area to be covered [they liked to peek when girls' knees weren't touching while sitting, or bending over while moving theater-class equipment off stage, or climbing stairs]. Pigs. Gym class was the only 50 mins. during entire school day that girls got to feel at ease, relaxed, enjoyable. During stormy weather/snow, wind lifted skirts. Girls are entitled to be as comfortable as boys in the classroom (& everywhere!). They probably learn more being cozy. How cruel guys are, still thinking they can dominate. Lobotomy, please.
At least they didn't hosed or tear gassed or run over by tanks or shot while unarmed..
There's 3 guys~~Are they protesting? Chaperoning? One's grabbing the fence [to get into pic?]. What's w/the chick in front of the trio licking her lips?
Load More Replies...If the boys had protested being not allowed to wear skirts I wonder what society today would look like
Ah yes, because the world can only deal with one problem at a time.
Load More Replies...Two Pals (1920)
Gay Men Pose For A Photo While Being Detained At A Police Station For Being Homosexuals In Mexico, 1935
1945: The Day Daddy Came Home. Gunner Hector Murdoch Had Been Gone Over Four Years, Most Of It As A Prisoner Of War In Singapore. His Wife Rosina And Son John Hadn't Known If He Was Dead Or Alive. He Got Home On His Birthday
Dad Showing Off His Skill To The Surprise Of His Little Daughter In Melbourne, Australia, Ca. 1940s
London's First Black Police Officer, PC Norwell Roberts, On Point Duty Near Charing Cross Station, 1968
He's definitely on point duty. That's a fantastic point he's got there.
This 1955 Photo Is One Of Walter Chandoha’s Most Famous Shots. “My Daughter Paula And The Kitten Both ‘Smiled’ For The Camera At The Same Time. …but The Cat’s Not Smiling, He’s Meowing”
Sisters In Skirts, 1950s
My Great Grandmother In The Early 1900’s. Thought She Looked Too Awesome Not To Share
My Parents’ Wedding Photo, Okinawa, 1964
My Grandpa (Left) And His Best Friend Willie Hall During The Korean War. Those Smiles Say It All
My Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Great-Great-Grandfather, And Great-Great-Great Grandmother, Ca 1918
My Great-Grandfather That Was Too Poor To Afford A Suit In Sicily, So He Had To Pose In Front Of A Cardboard Cut-Out, 1930s~
This Is Hazel, My Grandmother-In-Law. 1916
My Grandmother And Mom Circa 1974. My Grandmother Took My Mother To National Parks Over The Course Of A Few Months, Just The Two Of Them
“Our Michael”, 1938
A Sailor "Meets" His Baby For The First Time After Fourteen Months At Sea, 1940s
Okay, some parenting lessons may be needed. Day One: How to Hold the Baby.
Grandma And Papa In 1937. She Passed Away Today At 100 Years Old
Last Picture Of My Great Uncle Kennith, Before He Drowned In The Buffalo River, 1940’s. He Gave His Life Saving My Grandpa
My Mother Made Us Matching Dresses For A Fancy Party Back In 1954
Saw This Photo Posted Here.. Noticed I Have The Photo The Grandmother Took That Day. (Bought At An Antique Shop Years Ago In Phx)
A Parisian Woman With Her Cat In Her Cannabis Garden, 1910
I have a cat. All I need now is the garden (and some law changes please).
This Is My Grandma Dorothy. She Was A Dress Designer In The 50s Which Always Made This Photo More Funny To Me. She Passed Away Today At Age 89. A Life Well Lived
Vintage Photo From A Family Album, Freeport, Il
Besides the obvious that he is a black man and she a white woman in the 1900s, when this required a lot of guts, I love the fact he's wearing puttees as part of civilian dress. This was pretty common before WW1. After the war... not so much.
Me And My Best Friend Rocky Watching TV, 1959
Ladies At A Lesbian Club In Chelsea, 1953
A Mostly Happy Family Outing At Chicken Bone Beach, The Segregated Section Of Atlantic City's Beach Area, New Jersey, 1950s (Photographed By John W. Mosley)
1976 vs. 2018; 42 Years And We're Still Going Strong
Young Oyster Shuckers, Port Royal, South Carolina, 1909
Crikey - the “thousand yard stare” at that young age. Life must have been tough for these girls.
Reddit Seems To Love My Taita (Grandma), So Here Is Another One Of Her From 1950’s Beirut
The Wedding Rings Of My Ggm, Gggm, Ggggm, And Gggggm Oldest Dating Back To 1832!
Police Officer Unaware Of The Imminent Danger, Chicago, 1959
After Spending More Than Five Years In A North Vietnamese Camp, Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm Is Reunited With His Family At Travis Afb, March 13, 1973
This photo, called "Burst of Joy" won a Pulitzer prize. It has an unhappy ending though. According to Wikipedia "Despite outward appearances, the reunion was an unhappy one for Stirm. Three days before he arrived in the United States, the same day he was released from captivity, Stirm received a Dear John letter from his wife Loretta informing him that their marriage was over. Stirm later learned that Loretta had been with other men throughout his captivity, receiving marriage proposals from three of them. In 1974, the Stirms divorced and Loretta remarried, but Lieutenant Colonel Stirm was still ordered by the courts to provide her with 43% of his military retirement pay once he retired from the Air Force. Stirm was later promoted to full Colonel and retired from the Air Force in 1977."
My Grandpa’s Schoolhouse In Texas Ca. 1930’s. He Was Always Embarrassed Of This Picture Because He Was Too Poor To Afford Shoes
My dad remembered going to school in Ireland in the early 1940s alongside kids with no shoes. Extreme poverty is more recent than you think.
Women Trainees Of The Lapd Practice Firing Their Newly Issued Revolvers, 1948
Dublin, 1962
Caught On The Firescape, 1946
Offerings To The Unknown Dead, Kyoto, Japan, 1963
The 70s Transition: My Parents In 1968 And Again In 1970
My American Grandmother Visiting Athens In The 1960s
Such style in a lot of these pictures! Too bad nobody really dares to wear anymore
Listening To The Radio On The Beach, Circa 1940s
The Rolled-Stockings Trend Of The 1920's Brought On A Fad Of Hand-Painted Knees
Class Divide In Britain, 1930's
Me Ready For Friday Night Lights, 1969
Note: this post originally had 117 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I have all my grandparents and great grandparents old picture albums ! Come on over !
Load More Replies...It was my grandfather's birthday. This WWII "happy event" shows the wear and tear of the times on the faces of the participants. My mother - upper left - almost has a smile. Who knew in 1943 where the war would take us, how it would end? war-birthd...549034.jpg
My other fave pic from that era. 1967, my Mum and Dad looking like freakin' movie stars at the Fortuna Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. In a band, they were fresh out of a night in jail because their shady agent forgot to renew their visas. Still no sign of their luggage, they had to borrow the hotel's bathrobes while they waited. Love the back story behind the "glamour" shot, lol! 1967-Dad-a...63e818.jpg
My parents on their first date in 1963. I came along about a year later :-) 1963-Dad-a...c52148.jpg
This is a reminder that parents / grandparents were once young people doing what young people do. My dad used to always say “of course I know what you’re up to, because I did the same things when I was your age” and I would always think “you were never my age age, you’re the dad”
Lastly, 'cause I could go on and on (you're welcome!), here I am with Mum and Dad at their "second" wedding in 1974 (big semi-scandal at the time, I'm the only one that didn't know it was their first). Wonderful example of my Dad's style and porn 'stache. And I look adorable. 1974-Mum-a...b84dae.jpg
It genuinely saddens me that when people look at photographs 100 years from now, they'll see garbage like their grandmother's trout pout and not at all like the elegance and grace of 'our' 100 years ago.
I enjoyed the post, so different, I truly love old, styles as compared to today, is blah !!!
I have all my grandparents and great grandparents old picture albums ! Come on over !
Load More Replies...It was my grandfather's birthday. This WWII "happy event" shows the wear and tear of the times on the faces of the participants. My mother - upper left - almost has a smile. Who knew in 1943 where the war would take us, how it would end? war-birthd...549034.jpg
My other fave pic from that era. 1967, my Mum and Dad looking like freakin' movie stars at the Fortuna Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. In a band, they were fresh out of a night in jail because their shady agent forgot to renew their visas. Still no sign of their luggage, they had to borrow the hotel's bathrobes while they waited. Love the back story behind the "glamour" shot, lol! 1967-Dad-a...63e818.jpg
My parents on their first date in 1963. I came along about a year later :-) 1963-Dad-a...c52148.jpg
This is a reminder that parents / grandparents were once young people doing what young people do. My dad used to always say “of course I know what you’re up to, because I did the same things when I was your age” and I would always think “you were never my age age, you’re the dad”
Lastly, 'cause I could go on and on (you're welcome!), here I am with Mum and Dad at their "second" wedding in 1974 (big semi-scandal at the time, I'm the only one that didn't know it was their first). Wonderful example of my Dad's style and porn 'stache. And I look adorable. 1974-Mum-a...b84dae.jpg
It genuinely saddens me that when people look at photographs 100 years from now, they'll see garbage like their grandmother's trout pout and not at all like the elegance and grace of 'our' 100 years ago.
I enjoyed the post, so different, I truly love old, styles as compared to today, is blah !!!