Top 20+ ways your parents were much cooler than you

It’s always been cool to think of your parents as uncool. But if the two grew up in the 1960s, ’70s or ’80s, they’ve done a lot of living and may have lived different lives than you imagine. They were part of a generation whose bold spirit of exploration brought the first person to the moon.

They could have taken to the streets to protest racism, sexism, warmongering and other injustices. They may have been part of the counterculture that rejected the values of “The Man,” or they could have embraced the kind of personal style icons that turned heads. If you take a closer look, you may be surprised to find your parents were way cooler than you.

Good vibrations: the rise of surf culture

If your parents lived in California, or wherever there were gnarly breaking waves, they could have been part of surfing culture. The beach lifestyle moved to the “Good Vibrations” of “Surfin’ USA” and other anthems of the Beach Boys. It was also celebrated in documentaries and films, such as The Endless Summer, Gidget and Beach Blanket Bingo.

One observer claims: “Surf culture in California may have started as a way of enjoying a sunbaked, carefree life, but surfing’s love of the ocean and sense of community has made it a driving force for positive and progressive movement.”

The times were a-changing

Every generation has its own music. But Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held from August 15 to 18, 1969, was a major happening the likes of which had never been seen before (and some would argue, since). Musical performers such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Ravi Shankar, and Credence Clearwater Revival drew hundreds of thousands of people.

They were there to groove to the music, finding solace and unity during a time of great social unrest and the mounting death toll of the Vietnam War.

Going where no one has gone before

If your parents were boomers, they may have sat in a darkened living room watching the moon with wonder on the night of July 20, 1969. They listened to the radio while astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to step on the moon’s surface, saying, “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” The astronauts landed the moon mission in the Eagle lunar module and left behind a plaque that announced, “We came in peace for all mankind.”

People then embraced a sense of exploration and had the belief that the heavens would be opened up for everyone, and not just a few entitled billionaires.

They risked everything for peace

Sometimes hippies got a bad rap because of excessive drug use and too much free love. But we forget that the counterculture movement’s rejection of societal norms—embracing love instead of materialism and peace instead of war—was a brave stance that put them at risk of violent backlash.

They experienced the freedom of the road

Many of your parents’ generation succumbed to the allure of the highway, hitting the asphalt on motorcycles so they could find themselves—and freedom. The attraction and dangers of this lifestyle were explored in movies such as Easy Rider (1969) with Peter Fonda, and books such as Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (1967).

The embrace of motorcycle culture went hand in hand with a love of rock and roll. In the 1960s, Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham was known to ride his bike through the hallways of Los Angeles hotels. And in the 1970s, Meatloaf was just one of the rockers to celebrate the motorcycle lifestyle, with a solo track on his Bat Out of Hell album.

Big hair got big love

In the 1980s, people thought big. This was often demonstrated in the hairstyles of the era. Girls might be inspired by the piled-high locks of Dolly Parton or the long, air-blown tresses of actress Farrah Fawcett, while boys might take their cue from heavy metal “hair bands,” such as Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, and Poison. Other hairstyles embraced in the decade include mullets, hi-top fades, aqua-net bangs and massive perms.

Suave was also in

While your father may have worn jeans and tie-dye shirts, he could have also gone the opposite direction and embraced the suave, debonair styles exemplified by early James Bond actors Sean Connery and Roger Moore—two guys who really knew how to wear a suit.

Claims an article in the Globe and Mail: “James Bond is the most influential figure in men's wear who doesn't actually exist. He is not so much a fashion icon as a walking, fighting advertisement for the notion that a man can wear beautiful clothes and still be badass.”

They moved to a disco beat

Dancing to music is nothing new, but the disco era brought a frenzied passion for gyrating in swishy clothes under the flashing lights, to the pounding rhythms of songs like Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby.”

Old rockers might have proclaimed that “disco sucks,” but many of them heeded the siren call of disco anyway, with a chance to connect with members of the opposite sex while dancing the bump, the hustle and the boogaloo.

They stood against the war machine

“Make love not war” was a popular slogan during the war in Vietnam. Protesters from your parents’ era would face military or police armed with clubs or even guns and sometimes give them flowers, smiles and slogans in return.

Unfortunately, those in charge did not always show the same restraint. On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard shot their guns into a crowd of Kent State University antiwar demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The shootings prompted a nationwide student strike, which closed hundreds of colleges and universities.

Dance was broken in a good way

In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, dance was taken to the ground with back spins and head spins and impressively athletic movements. The improvisational dance form of break dancing, or breaking, originated in New York City and became associated with hip-hop culture, often performed by African American and Latino youth.

Pioneered by Jamaican DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), the “break” in the dance form referred to the special sounds and rhythms created by deejays who produced a continuous dance beat by combining sounds from different records.

They were loud and proud in their music

Today music lovers are discreet, with corded or cordless earphones connected to a smartphone playing their music playlists. Decades ago, people were louder and prouder in their music, playing the music of Top 40 stations on their transistor radios or through a boombox—a portable stereo with cassette tape players, carried on the shoulder, blasting music for all to hear. Gradually vinyl records and cassette tapes gave way to CDs, DVDs and today’s unlimited streaming choices.

They used playgrounds without fear

There has been a move in recent times to make playgrounds safer by removing (depending on where you live) monkey bars, teeter-totters, and even slides to protect children from falling and hurting themselves (and preventing lawsuits as a result). In some cases, mulch or asphalt on the ground has been replaced by rubber surfaces. Some experts argue that playgrounds are too safe, reducing the ability of kids to experiment with constructive risk-taking.

Back in the day, kids would use the equipment fearlessly, prepared to exchange a few scrapes and bruises for some great thrills.

They knew how to get rid of bad politicians

Today it seems really hard to get rid of corrupt politicians who abuse their positions of power. Back in the day, people learned how to kick trash to the curb. In August 1974, impeached and disgraced President Richard M. Nixon was forced to resign over the Watergate scandal.

Digging by reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein helped reveal that Nixon was behind the burglary at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office-apartment-hotel complex, in the nation’s capital, in 1972. So far Nixon is the only U.S. president to ever have been ousted this way.

Black power became a force

Today people are working hard to make Black lives matter. But the battle didn’t begin here. Racial segregation forcing Blacks and whites to live separate lives—going to different schools and drinking from different water fountains—gave rise to Black power movements in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s that helped bring about change to the law and people’s attitudes about race.

Whether it was the powerful, peaceful protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or the more militant actions of the Black Panthers, the war waged for equality, in the United States and other countries, has a long history and continues to this day.

Kids were free to have fun

Today kids often lead highly scheduled lives, with playdates and organized activities filling their days, with lots of screen time in-between. This contrasts the unstructured time enjoyed by previous generations, hanging out with friends and only going home when the streetlights came on.

In “The Serious Business of Play,” the American Psychological Association points out: “A wealth of research shows that unstructured play—play that isn’t organized or directed by adults or older peers and that generally doesn’t have a defined purpose or outcome—is a fundamental necessity for children to thrive physically, emotionally, mentally and socially.”

They embraced body-focused fashion styles

Think your parents are conservative and dull? Think again. When they were young, they may have embraced head-turning fashion styles. Their generation wore hotpants and mini-skirts proudly, and guys would don muscle shirts to show off their sculpted arms. Other body-focused styles of the past include the bronzed beach look, aerobics chic, the ultra-glam Studio 54 look, clingy spandex in many forms, and, well, the list goes on.

They knew the power of vinyl first

What was old is new again. Vinyl records have made a huge comeback in popularity, outselling CDs for the first time since 1987. While this is a kind of retro anomaly embraced by many, vinyl records and record players were a firm fixture in your parents’ lives first.

They’d hear a top-40 song on the radio and rush down to the music store to buy the 45 RPM record of the single, which needed to be played on the turntable with a plastic insert piece. While the record was bought for the A side, sometimes the B side featured a sleeping treasure that got more play.

Women made their voices heard

The 1950s stereotype of a woman conjures up a perfectly coiffed housewife serving dinner to her man, supporting him in his all-important career while she does all the housework and shopping, and raises the kids. However, in reality, many women wanted different lives—to be treated equally in the workplace and in relationships.

So the women’s liberation movement exploded in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, protesting, among other things, the fact that a woman only made 59 cents on a man’s dollar; was seen as unfit for jobs such as policing, firefighting, and holding public office; and could find her husband owning the things she had purchased with her own money. While the glass ceiling is still there, previous generations of women put major cracks in it.

They twisted and shouted

While you might look forward to the release of your favourite musician’s new track on SoundCloud, it doesn’t compare to the frenzied excitement of the British invasion and Beatlemania. The Beatles were so popular that they sometimes couldn’t be heard at concerts over the hysterical shouting of fans.

Your parents might have been lucky enough to witness the beginning of Beatlemania in North America, when John, Paul, George and Ringo twisted and shouted on The Ed Sullivan Show, in 1964, attracting a TV viewership of more than 73 million. The Fab Four influenced many haircut and clothing choices of the time.

Walls between people came down

If your parents’ generation was largely devoted to bringing down walls between people, they witnessed this literally with the fall of the Berlin Wall. After World War II, the Soviet Union and the Allies separated Berlin into eastern and western parts controlled separately by each of the two factions. A lot of Cold War shenanigans ensued, with the Soviets’ attempt to starve Western Berlin thwarted by an Allied airlift, and a dramatic tank confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie. The city was deep in Soviet-controlled territory, and so the Communists erected a wall in 1961 to isolate it from Western influences.

In 1989 the wall came down, allowing two million Germans from East Berlin to visit West Berlin, sparking “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” Celebrants used hammers and picks to knock off chunks of the wall.