About r/OldSchoolCool
In its own words:
/r/OldSchoolCool History's cool kids, looking fantastic! A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between. If you've found a photo, or a photo essay, of people from the past looking fantastic, here's the place to share it.
The community was created on Apr 21, 2012, which makes it 14 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 3,741 subscribers (+0.02%). It sits just behind r/photoshopbattles (#41) and ahead of r/tifu (#43) in our ranking.
What sets r/OldSchoolCool apart
r/OldSchoolCool is far more image-driven than most big subreddits: 69% of its recent posts are images, against a median of 9% across the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/OldSchoolCool grew from 19,637,635 to 19,656,208 subscribers (+18.6K, +0.09%). That is about 464 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.
Top posts on r/OldSchoolCool this week
What the community upvoted most over the last seven days, as ranked by Reddit (collected Oct 29, 2026).
- Safety Training Video from 1995. Do you remember?u/FrenchieMama807 · Oct 23 · video
- No Doubt's TV Debut in 1990. Gwen was 21 here.u/Satinsbestfriend · Oct 24 · video
- My wife and I back when we were dating in 1995u/oldboy_and_the_sea · Oct 26 · image
- Tom Skerritt and my Great Grandma went to senior prom together. June 22nd 1951u/Distant_Koba · Oct 23 · image
- Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera (The Mickey Mouse Club, 1993)u/rasterizationdust · Oct 25 · image
- Meet Bessie Stringfield, the Black woman who rode a Harley solo across Jim Crow America eight times in the 1930s and 40s. She slept on her bike when hotels turned her away, won a flat track race disg…u/Past-Lunch4695 · Oct 28 · gallery
- Eric Cantona being surrounded by journalists after his ban from the French national football team for insulting the manager on live TV, 1988u/FayannG · Oct 27 · image
- My mom and my grandparents in Iran, 1967u/Ok_Assistance1315 · Oct 29 · image
- My Mom & Dad around 1987u/MiddleImportant1920 · Oct 25 · image
- Mel Brooks was a combat engineer in the U.S. Army and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to the forward edge of the battle areas, to clear land mines so Allied forces could advance. On fi…u/eaglemaxie · Oct 28 · image
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/OldSchoolCool, from 2017 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.
- In 1974, Masahisa Fukase photographed his wife, Yōko Wanibe, every morning from the window of their apartment in Tokyo as she left for work.u/Str33twise84 · Jan 2, 2025 · gallery
- Just retired after 42 years as an obstetrical nurse, at the same hospital. Here I am at the start (1979) and end of my career!u/nankie · Aug 4, 2021 · 146,092 points · 3,671 comments · image
- The Paramount Pictures logo on the day it was originally painted. [1965]Jan 21, 2018 · 127,739 points · 1,303 comments · image
- My uncle getting caught growing weed in the backyard. Circa 1970s.u/Meta_Man_X · Dec 11, 2017 · 114,150 points · 3,281 comments · image
- My parents on their wedding day in 1964 and then again at Christmas 2021u/askalottle · Oct 12, 2022 · 119,996 points · 2,345 comments · gallery
- My deaf father, hugging a speaker to his chest to feel the vibrations of music. Early 1970s.u/LoveMinerals · Feb 27, 2020 · 109,815 points · 1,142 comments · image
- Since everyone is posting their mom's in bikinis for some reason, here's my mom coming to see me during her lunch break for my kindergarten graduation in 1988.u/SarcasticGamer · May 14, 2025 · image
- My Uncle Billy just turned 90, so here’s him on his boat during the early 80’sMar 5, 2020 · 110,294 points · 2,129 comments · image
- 1967 - Me (front) and my Dad's band. Dad is left rear.u/OracleGreyBeard · Feb 10, 2025 · image
- My Grandmother, a white Jewish woman, looked like Barack Obama in 1962u/BigDanRTW · Aug 25, 2017 · 104,512 points · 2,855 comments · image
What r/OldSchoolCool talks about
We read the titles of 425 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “dad”, “circa”, “grandfather”, “early” and “great”. Other frequent themes are photo, mom, grandma, late, school and halloween. Recurring phrases include “york city”, “curt hennig”, “high school” and “photo taken”. By format, 69% are images, 14% are videos and 12% are galleries.
Popular post flairs: 1980s (51), 1990s (51), 1970s (43), 1960s (34), 1950s (21), 1940s (17).
Activity and best time to post
r/OldSchoolCool gets about 66 new posts a day. The public archive holds 906,525 posts and 17,338,913 comments in total, about 19.1 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Monday (77 posts) and the quietest was Friday (51). Posting peaks around 14:00 UTC and is lowest around 08:00 UTC.
Rules of r/OldSchoolCool
The moderators of r/OldSchoolCool list 8 rules. In short:
- Rule 1 – Must be 25 years old or more
- Rule 2 – Must have year or decade in the title
- Rule 3 – No offensive comments, offensive submissions or repost spam
- Rule 4 – Don't mention death of relative in title
- Rule 5 – No reposts less than 6 months old
- Rule 6 – Must feature a person
- Rule 7. No publicity photos of celebrities - (photos of celebs living life are fine)
- Rule 8 - No TV clips, movie clips or stills ( videos of live performances + home video are fine)
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How big is r/OldSchoolCool?
r/OldSchoolCool has 19,656,208 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #42 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 18,573 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.
How old is r/OldSchoolCool?
r/OldSchoolCool was created on Apr 21, 2012, so it has been around for 14 years.
How active is r/OldSchoolCool?
Very active: r/OldSchoolCool gets about 66 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 906,525 posts and 17,338,913 comments. In a sample of 425 recent posts we counted 270 different authors.
When is r/OldSchoolCool most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 21, 2026 to Oct 27, 2026, the busiest day was Monday and the quietest Friday, and most posts arrive around 14:00 UTC, with the fewest around 08:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/OldSchoolCool about?
The community describes itself as: “/r/OldSchoolCool History's cool kids, looking fantastic! A pictorial and video celebration of history's coolest kids, everything from beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between. …” Recent post titles often mention dad, circa, grandfather, early and great. Most posts are images (69%).
Is r/OldSchoolCool safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/OldSchoolCool as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/OldSchoolCool?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/OldSchoolCool accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos, galleries and polls enabled. It has 8 posted rules, starting with: “Rule 1 – Must be 25 years old or more”; “Rule 2 – Must have year or decade in the title”; “Rule 3 – No offensive comments, offensive submissions or repost spam”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/OldSchoolCool?
Communities with similar topics include r/history (18.8M), r/HistoryMemes (12.8M), r/Parenting (8.3M), r/MadeMeSmile (12.7M) and r/AmItheAsshole (24.7M).
Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/OldSchoolCool.