Happy Mother’s Day! We gathered photos of our moms / mom-figures way back when they either didn’t know us yet or we barely knew them. Either way, they sure are some hip, hip ladies, and we love them more than our hearts can hold! Thanks for every single thing forever, mother people.

Renita

Laneia’s Mom

This is my mom, my grandfather’s dog that I named Sugarwoofer, and me at my grandfather’s canoe rental business near the Buffalo River in Tennessee, 1984. My mother is the Number One Best at matching her earrings to her outfits, to this day. Also this is probably the only picture ever taken of her in a hat, which is nuts because she’s so cool here I can’t even stand it. I remember the drive to this place was just covered with the leafiest trees.

Debbie

Erin’s Mom

Here we all are in 1986 in Augusta, GA for our yearly Olan Mills softly lit family portrait, looking suspiciously like members of the Source Family. My dad is missing here, something I’m sure my mom was thrilled about in that particular moment.

Linda

Laura’s Mom

After my parents graduated, got married and had me, the next step was for my Dad to get his green card. So they moved to Harlan, Kentucky! That’s where we are here. I love my mom’s geek chic ensemble.

Mae

Stef’s Grandma

The photo says it was taken at Chanukah in 1975, so it must have been in West Orange, New Jersey or thereabouts. My grandma (R) and her little sister Gert (L) were inseparable, and they were the most adorable pair. Their father ran a tavern in Newark and was a rum runner during prohibition, and as little kids they used to drink beer and dance on the tables. When I was a kid, they would rehash these stories over Shabbat dinners and bicker constantly about the details – “No, Gertie! I was doing the Mexican Hat Dance!” Thirty years after this photo was taken, Aunt Gert developed fairly rapidly-progressing Alzheimer’s and one of her sons moved her out to be closer to him in northern California. My parents took my grandmother out there and brought the two of them all around the tourist traps of San Francisco, knowing full well this would be the last time the sisters would spend together. They were two of my favorite people I’ve ever known and I miss them both every day. Anyway, I love this photo because they both look so happy, even though Aunt Gert is kinda dressed like Minnie Mouse.

Meg

Crystal’s Mum

This photo of 16-year-old Meg was taken in Australia in 1975, shortly before she moved to Florida for a high school exchange program. She still has a great deal of collar confidence.

Stacy

Mey’s Mom

My mom was such a badass in this picture, I mean, in a lot of ways she still is, but she was a different kind of badass back then. She was hanging out in a cabin in Crestline, California, drinking, smoking and playing cards with a friend. Look at how cool she looks! She says that this was probably her first ever cigarette! She got that Eagles shirt at an Eagles concert! Her friend probably had a big lesbian crush on her.

Erica

Maddie’s Mom

My mom loved being at the beach – here we are together on Cape Cod circa 1995. She gracefully looks out at the ocean before us, rocking the greatest floral one-piece bathing suit of the entire 1990s, toes painted to match. Twenty-one years later, I have pretty much exactly the same haircut as I did then, that shirt is still too big on me, and I make the same face when I look into the sun.

Kathleen

KaeLyn’s Mom

My mom used to put her head on an ironing board to set her naturally strawberry blond hair into that straight, long look that was so popular in the early 70’s. She’s still a natural blond, though her hair has been chin-length and wavy for a long time now. She had some of the cutest dresses when she was younger. This one has little animals on it. I think she was on her way to a friend’s wedding. She saved some of her favorite clothes and they eventually got passed down to me. My mom and I are super different people in a lot of ways, but we both appreciate a good frock, a gaudy necklace, and a bold lipstick. I like to think I got that from her.

Persephone

Alaina’s Mom

This is my mom at her very first job post-college. She moved halfway across the country from Ohio to Connecticut for it, and she brought her best style. Of the pictures she sent me, this was her favorite because “I was a young professional and I was happy.” I love everything about this picture, especially her smile; and I sincerely hope she hasn’t thrown away that tie.

Chippy

Maree’s Mom

My mom spent two seasons working in Antarctica between 1983 – 1985, because she is the coolest adventurer ever (it’s also where she met my dad). I love this because it’s exactly how I always look in pictures too. It was taken on the frozen Ross Sea, just off Ross Island, which is where the U.S.’s McMurdo Station is located. She wrote, “It was probably in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn’t usual to see penguins since the open ocean was quite far away. Sometimes the ice would go out and the ocean would be there by the station. It didn’t happen often in the ‘80s.”

Maureen

Riese’s Mom

I remember my Mom telling me about how in high school their jeans were so tight they’d have to help each other zip them up using pliers, which I saw in a movie later. Anyhow the point of this is that my Mom was always rocking the high-waisted pants and even high waisted denim skirts! This was taken, I think, in a park in Urbana, Illinois, before we moved to Michigan. My favorite pic of my Dad and I was taken this same afternoon. My Mom tends to blink when pics are taken, thus ruining them, but in this one she’s got her eyes wide open and she looks so happy! She’s got a really big smile, like I do, and I think it really lights up the room. OR THE PARK.

Berit

Ali’s Mom

This photo was taken at Rutgers University (the Camden campus). I’m not sure if this was before or after my mom switched from her nursing major to her accounting major because she couldn’t bring herself to kill and dissect a frog. Every purse she’s ever had looks exactly like the one pictured here.

Alejandra

Isabel’s Mom

My mom has had so many lives, it’s hard to keep track of which version of mom I’m looking at. This photo was taken outside a trattoria in Florence, the year she took off from Mexico City to study art and art history on a whim. She says she would’ve stayed forever. Whenever she sees this picture she remembers her mom being outraged that she was the one holding the Chianti.

Yoli

Yvonne’s Mom

My mom was a migrant farm worker growing up so she would travel with her parents and nine other siblings from May to October to pick tomatoes, cherries, strawberries, and various other vegetables in other states. In this photo, she’s sitting on her bed in Indiana during tomato season in 1975. She always tells me stories about going up north and about the Miller’s farm and her best friend, Diana. Since I was a little girl, my grandma and aunts have told me that I look exactly like my mom. You can’t really tell in this photo but after all these years being told I look like my mom, I can finally see the resemblance.

Lorraine

Aisha’s Mom

In this picture, my mom is where she seems happiest, surrounded by family on her mother’s 80th birthday in Detroit. If I’m correct, it was a day when a bunch of Italians went to the Olive Garden. I mean, we were the Italians.

Elizabeth

Kayla’s Mom

People often assume that my mother did not actually give birth to me, since she is a very tall, blonde, white, blue-eyed Scandinavian lady and I am none of those things (well, technically, I did inherit her Scandinavian roots, but I’m visibly much more Indian like my father). If you look closely though, I think you can see the resemblance. She briefly had a perm for the first couple years of my life, and I choose to believe it was so she could look more like me.

Francie

Sadie’s Mom

This is from one of the few times my Dad took my mom golfing. She hated it. But look at how fly she looks with that popped collar and Princess Di heartcut. Such a boss.

Deborah

Carolyn’s Mom

My dad was the bass player for some of YOUR mom’s favorite bands in the 70’s so my mom got to hang out at some of the hottest after-hours spots in the Bay Area on a regular basis. Here she is at an unnamed after-hours joint in Oakland, California, taking a picture in that same whicker chair that every black mama and grandmama took at least one picture in during the 70’s. I got my legs from my mama.

Jan

Carrie’s Mom

My mom (seated) and her sister, my aunt Kim, visiting ANOTHER sister (Dee-I) in New York, August 1979. There are four sisters and one brother in all. The whole family was an East Coast operation for much of their lives, but before I was born most everyone relocated out here to California. I love that each of the sisters only had two kids, but masterfully concocted a big family by keeping us all close together. Plus, I mean, look how gorgeous they both are here. And everyone has aged infuriatingly well. I can only hope I inherited those genes.

Bernadette

Rachel‘s mom

This is my mom at 27 — the same age I am now! — on her honeymoon with my dad in Cancun. She’s always been my aspiration for long hair looks, and I really feel like she’s barely aged a day since this. She still loves the ocean.

We’d love to see an older picture of your mom / grandmother / aunt / mom-like person! Here’s how to make that happen in the comments:

Find a photo on the web, right click (on a Mac, control+click), hit “Copy Image URL” and then code it in to your comment using these tags, like so:

<img src=”http://imagelink.jpg”>

To upload the photo you love from your computer, try using imgur. To learn more about posting photos, check out Ali’s step-by-step guide.

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