Well, I'm old enough to remember all that you pointed out but I think it was only 98 yeas ago...not 100.
One trick we used as we traveled to check in with our families because long distance charges were expensive was to use the operator to make the call for a "person to person" request. The operator placed the call and asked the receiving end for the name we requested (which was always our cat's name). This let the our family know we were okay.
By the way, you may be interested in knowing your vocal tones for texting sent my guinea pig scrambling for his safe place.