My birthday was last month. It was nice=usual, Graham made dinner and brought home some treats from Tegnérs, I got some cards and gifts sent by friends and family. Later in the week I walked by the a collection of old electronic gadgets that is being curated at the KTH Flemingsberg campus. As an engineering school, there is a general interest in technology, and the artifacts provide some novelty interest. The old wooden radios and giant vacuum tubes have been there a long time, but now there are some new items: computers that are about 20 years old. IS THAT HISTORY? Of course, to the kids taking classes there, things form the years around when they were born are historical, maybe nostalgically “old school” or maybe just obsolete.
Since Samuel’s birth 6 years ago lifted me up into the grandparent generation, I have leaning into ‘back in my day’: When I was in high school, we didn’t HAVE email (though I think email is now too stodgy and lame for any highschooler to consider it a means of communication.) Below are some things I appreciated at the time but now have earned a place in the technology museum.
My first mobile phone this mini-audiovox in 1998. I had a car charger, since I was on the go. I got my first text message on this bad boy in 2000 during the Sydney Olympics. 
The original Motorola brick, which my Dad and Uncle Pat had in the early days of mobile phones. The batteries lasted like 4 hours? 
Motorola Razr, which my mom had 
old skool bonus: Expo Ernie was the Mascot for Expo 86, the Vancouver world’s fair with the theme ‘Transportation & Communication’. This lil space man brought us the skytrain
You probably don’t hear this sound much anymore, but if you were born before 2000 then at one point you probably heard it a lot.
Weird random fact – I went to Expo 86 when I was a toddler and I have a vague memory of it, which might actually be my earliest memory, sitting on my grandpa’s shoulders watching the fireworks! Happy belated birthday!