Not long ago, a song from my early childhood entered my brain. The tune was, "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah," by the late comedian Allan Sherman.

In the song, a homesick lad in his first moments at sleepaway camp is writing a letter home to his parents, complaining, in essence, that he is both bored and freaked (believe me, that combination is very plausible, and I say that as an adult).

Then, driving around on Friday night, the old song "See You In September" came on the radio. The lyrics had to do with a guy temporarily saying goodbye to the lady he had a crush on, biting his lip as he sang out loud how worried he might be that he would "lose (her) to a summer love."

What does this have to do with the Unwired world? Let me explain.

The world of the kid at the sleepaway camp, as well as the city gal at the summer lakeside resort, doesn't exist anymore. Communication meant writing a letter just before going to bed, and then dropping it off the next morning for pickup. Then,two or three days later, the letter would be delivered to your parents, or your loved one, or your now-ex loved one - in the hot steamy city.

Now, with cell phone and e-mail ubiquity, kids at summer camp can call their city-bound friends hanging out at the mall, and rub it in. Or, that 16 year-old camp counselor can call her high-school sweetheart every night on her Verizon calling plan.

I'm all in favor of staying in touch, but something's lost here. The ability to retreat into another world, to be essentially unreachable in summer, is lost.

No more "see you in September." Now, it is "I'll call you on your cell tonight."