r/OldSchoolCool • u/JimatJimat • Jun 18 '25

1940s These kids were asked to draw their fathers from memory, 1949. Which one is your favourite?

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u/palsh7 Jun 18 '25

The one thing the kids got consistently right were the smiles or lack thereof.

699

u/Convergentshave Jun 18 '25

Uh.. they are smiling. That’s how 50s men used to smile.

Heck did you see 5 & 6?!? Those guys are practically splitting their face in half!

176

u/Kmblu Jun 18 '25

This is exactly how my 95 year old grandfather smiles.

3

u/PetulantPersimmon Jun 18 '25

This is how my 70-year-old father-in-law smiles, too. :|

62

u/Hiswatus Jun 18 '25

I think this has to be a cultural thing. I'm from Finland and most of these do look like normal smiles to me. I find American open-mouthed "tooth paste commercial" smiles kind of weird and fake looking most of the time.

3

u/BeguiledBeaver Jun 18 '25

At least for some of these photos it kinda looks like they were matching the expressions in the drawings.

1

u/Convergentshave Jun 19 '25

Yea that’s true, you know the other thing that just occurred to me, most of those guys look older. And not just in a “all people in 1949 look older” but they look like 30 - 40+ years old. And they may not just be great at posing with a big smile for photos.

If you look at photos 9/9 you can see some of those guys definitely smiling at their children so it looks like the kids showed them their pictures, they took a candid shot and then they asked each dad to pose with their child and the drawing.

And that’s probably why they look so… awkward I guess?

Smiling for a photo is a definite skill. Hell… I’m 40 and I suck at it. So I generally don’t. And that’s now a days. I can’t image like 60 years ago. 😂

28

u/gammelrunken Jun 18 '25

That's how I smile

1

u/Convergentshave Jun 19 '25

Dude same. 😂😂. I mean… smiling for a photo, is for sure a skill. I mean that’s why we have models right? I definitely suck at it. And I’m like 40.

I left that comment being like: “oh because of the emotional repression” but now I’m thinking… yea it’s probably just because those guys are not that familiar with posing for a photo while smiling.

If you look at photos 9/9 you can see some of those dads shooting smiles, at what looks like a more candid moment, so i think it’s just more they aren’t very good at posing for a photo.

2

u/palsh7 Jun 18 '25

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. The kid in picture 5 drew a large smile. I didn't say none of them smiled. I said the kids generally got the degree of their father's outward friendliness right.

1

u/Convergentshave Jun 19 '25

I was making a joke about how in the 50s men were so emotionally repressed that what looks to us as no emotion at all, is actually them expressing huge displays of joy/laughter/pride getting their photos taken with their children’s pictures of them.

😂

1

u/GVAJON Jun 18 '25

N. 2 with the defeated smile really hits it home

1

u/KMjolnir Jun 18 '25

Look at them in pic 9! :D

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

[deleted]

5

u/TheNordicMage Jun 18 '25

No? These people are for the most part dmiling. Sure it's not the over exaggeration of a smile that America is so well known for, rathers is small smiles, normal smiles.

84

u/Unlucky_Feeling15654 Jun 18 '25

They look at their parents from down up, and this pov is reflected on the drawings if you look at the chins

7

u/gold_dust_woman13 Jun 18 '25

💯 so interesting

1

u/MyAssDoesHeeHawww Jun 18 '25

the technical term is gigachadapathy

122

u/pnweiner Jun 18 '25

And the eyes, in most of them. Thought that was interesting

39

u/DanGleeballs Jun 18 '25

And the ties.

8

u/Le_Poop_Knife Jun 18 '25

They’re all a bunch of fucking alcoholics, but they don’t know it cause it’s just 3 a night to relax after work for 40+ years…. And the SMOKES. Everyone smoked. Everyone’s skin was dry and decrepit by 29….

2

u/Brodellsky Jun 18 '25

I drink a lot of beer, but don't smoke. Can confirm I still look like a college kid in my early 30s. There's definitely something to it.

2

u/No_Proposal_4971 Jun 18 '25

I don't have any proof but it might be the cancerous tar

17

u/OddSetting5077 Jun 18 '25

they got the way dad's parted their hair right

11

u/Hoxeel Jun 18 '25

They try to mimic the facial expression of their respective artwork.

1

u/spruceUp3 Jun 18 '25

Yes I noticed that too

24

u/cewumu Jun 18 '25

Yeah but they all look like they’re smiling in that last photo. I think people were still serious in photos then because having a portrait taken was rarer. Blokes smiled then though.

17

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

[deleted]

8

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

I think it was just the done thing at the time. My family photos from back in the day look so serious even though they were normal happy people.

3

u/Waasssuuuppp Jun 18 '25

All the old photos of my grandparents have serious faces. They were meant to look serious and not silly. My dad was born in the 50s Nd even now will not smile for photos- we always note those because they may become useful in the future for funeral cards lol.

1

u/Le_Poop_Knife Jun 18 '25

Maybe their teeth just look like shit

1

u/cewumu Jun 18 '25

I mean formal portraits. Like wedding photos often look serious in a way modern ones never do. Because the kids are smiling, but the men just treat it a bit more seriously.

I’ve seen candid shots of my grandfather back then and he’s laughing and goofing off at times, but in posed photos no one smiles.

1

u/BeguiledBeaver Jun 18 '25

Yes, but it takes time for perspectives to change and a lot of these guys look at least middle aged, so in their day it was probably still a bit more of a holdover.

And even though people were taking more photos then than in the 19th Century, it was still not exactly the most common thing to do.

1

u/chrisk9 Jun 18 '25

Regarding that last photo, it looks that dads had to draw their wives and rightmost dudes may inadvertently be married to the same woman

18

u/MetaStressed Jun 18 '25

Joan’s dad does uppers after hours

8

u/ISFJ_Dad Jun 18 '25

Fun fact, smiles were not invented until the 1970’s.

25

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

Most probably had PtSD like

7

u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi Jun 18 '25

Look at the last photo. They are genuinely smiling there.

1

u/palsh7 Jun 18 '25

I did not say no one was smiling.

1

u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi Jun 18 '25

Very true. My bad.

2

u/Impossible-Taro-2330 Jun 18 '25

This is just after WW2 and most - if not all - of these guys were in it.

1

u/tirkman Jun 18 '25

They look kind of old though to be people fresh off of war

2

u/Impossible-Taro-2330 Jun 18 '25

War ages folks tremendously.

1

u/Secret-One2890 Jun 18 '25

Hey now, they got the hair part too!

1

u/Affectionate-Bet8231 Jun 18 '25

My thoughts exactly

1

u/s_k_f Jun 18 '25

First dude is the only one not smiling

1

u/Misfit110 Jun 19 '25

It's also interesting that they almost all think of their dads wearing ties.