Once upon a time, I couldn’t see the point of these new-fangled gadget cell phones that can text-message, play MP3’s, take pictures, and sometimes can just barely not even make a phone call. (You know what I’m talking about.)

Today, however, I copied all the files from my cell phone onto my computer, and I found numerous photos that I and my kids had taken, some of which are kinda cool, and others of which bring back memories. Most of us don’t carry a camera around, but we do carry our cell phones around. So when a photo-op presents itself, good thing we have some way to capture the moment.

(By the way, my cell phone takes pictures no better than any other cell phone, of much lower quality than the camera my brother’s uses to take his pro-quality photos. Most of the shots on there stunk. But some of them I was able to salvage, and the images you see here have been enhanced and processed to look half-decent.)

Start with this cute shot I took, across the parking lot from my favorite Starbucks. When I saw these two storefronts, side by side, the only thing I could think was, I wonder if they’re in business together.

(You can click on the photo for a higher-resolution image.)

Then my parents upgraded me the following Christmas to a Commodore VIC-20, which had a whole 4KB RAM, sound, and color graphics. At some point, we also got an 8KB RAM expansion cartridge, and I remember programming it in assembly code, using the Machine Code Monitor cartridge to debug my programs.

The following year, we got a Commodore 64, which had a whole 64KB RAM—more than any other computer at the time—and new sound and graphics chips that were trés kewl. The Commodore 64 is unique in my memory, because I not only remember programming it, I also remember playing games on it, including a number of the games featured in this video: