On the Web

Before you

by Adrienne LaFrance | Nov 25, 2009

On the Web / You should have been there. The decade before you were born was insane. The parties? Crazy. The politics? Crazier. Life was all around off-the-hook. Partly–OK, almost entirely–this is because you weren’t around yet. Before they had kids, your parents were traveling, scene-making, drinking too much and sleeping too late. But then you came along and suddenly it was all Big Wheels and little league, mini-vans and a major lifestyle change. If we’re lucky, the awesome parents we’ve always known have been loving, reliable and responsible. But there’s that other, more elusive parental awesomeness that we only glimpse in old photos. Maybe it’s your Mom in leopard leggings and a pill-box hat or your dad with full-on sideburns and Coke-bottle-thick glasses. These photos are windows into an awesomeness that we can never fully know, because–like it or not–it faded with our arrival. Parental awesomeness in all forms merits celebration. But the Web site [myparentswereawesome.com] focuses mostly on the kind that predates us. Reader-submitted photos include shots of Dad in goofy shades, smoking a cigarette; Mom in a jean jacket sitting on the hood of a car; Dad playing the accordion; the two of them laughing under a Christmas tree; Mom tossing up a peace sign; Dad jumping his chopper; Mom showing off the fish she caught and Dad with every (and we mean every) imaginable style of mustache. You wouldn’t even believe some of these mustaches. Your parents are at the beach, they’re at picnics, they’re dancing, they’re lying in the grass, they’re standing in front of first houses. Mostly, they’re in love. The site is equal parts hilarious and romantic. In short, it’s awesome.

Turns out that your parents’ parents were awesome, too. Honolulu Academy of Arts is accepting digital images of grandmothers.
E-mail your photo to [email: grandma], for use in a work of art that will be on view at Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday on Jan. 17. Submission deadline: Dec. 14.

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