I recently bought two things that can hardly be called cutting edge, technologically speaking: a fountain pen and an oil lamp. With all the technological advances made since I was born, it's odd to think that I would choose to such dated and antiquated items, not for display or ambience but for actual use. Research from NASA's space program yielded a pen that can write upside down in zero gravity, yet I bought a pen that requires precautions if I want to take it in a pressurized airline cabin. It's not an antique but just holding it gives me a feeling that connects me to the past.

My house growing up was filled with antiques handed down from the previous generation. My parents weren't collectors: the sturdy furniture was left over from my mother's childhood. The dining room table, for example, needed to be refinished, but it was paid for. It held many memories and stories, some of them carved right into the wood itself. I can't imagine that Formica will ever have that sort of handed down history and place of reverence.

As technology grows more pervasive and inescapable, I find myself noticing the less sophisticated, less complex, less familiar comforts from the past. The development of electricity and the incandescent light bulb are probably as important to human evolution as the discovery of fire, but I can't imagine a low-wattage bulb ever matching the romantic glow of a flame for setting an intimate mood. The oil lamp I recently bought at a garage sale, once a commonplace necessity in someone's home earlier this century, now adds its enchanting glow to our family's room. I wouldn't want to try and read or sew by its light, however, as a previous owner may have needed to once upon a time.

The best thing about living today in our society isn't just that we have the benefit of technological advances. The best thing is that we have myriad choices and can choose to do without some or all of them. You may choose to build a spare, basic log cabin home heated solely by a wood stove and yet be wired for Direct TV and the Internet. I just recently found out some outlying homes in the region still have party lines. Imagine that: portable phones hooked into party lines.

This fascination with the past may be influenced by my recent reading material. I just finished the classic book "Little Women" with my daughter. We read it over the course of several months, then watched all three movies --1933, 1949 and 1994 -- in one day. Perhaps all this emphasis on the simpler, harder lives of the past have gotten me on a nostalgic jag. The millennial madness from earlier this year probably contributed to this as well. Things have subsided for now, but I'm sure it'll gear up as the dawn of the "real" millennium approaches. We are now on the cusp (or so it seems) of the past and the future.

The more we change, though, the more we stay the same.

I once worked at an Olde Tyme Photo Shoppe where period costumes and sepia tones were used to conjure up the impression of stepping back in time. I've also been to gatherings of historic reenactments and other medieval gatherings and faires, but nothing makes it clearer how little we have changed over the centuries than reading old journals and looking at pictures from the past.

When you look at photographs from a hundred years ago what do you see? People in old-fashioned clothes doing old-fashioned things. Ignore the outfits, though, and study the faces and you'll see people you know in the eyes of your ancestors. Situations change, but basic human emotions and our hopes, fears and concerns for the future remain the same. We hope for a better life for our children, even as we gaze in fondness at the precious memories of the past.

You don't have to look far for examples of things that have been around for a long time. A game of darts and a pint of lager. Checkers and chess. Quilting and calligraphy. Guitars, pianos and other musical instruments. Fountain pens and oil lamps.

By the way, the Russians also realized they needed a writing implement that would work in space. Instead of spending millions to develop a special pen, their space program suggested pencils. Not as technologically dramatic, perhaps, but something I hope future space travelers take into consideration.