the days of the "party line". we were D, 1 long and 2 short rings,
the wives knew all the gossip by listening in to others conversations on the line,
the next phone was a big box on the wall, at man height, Mum needed a block of wood Dad made to reach the mouthpiece, and the ear piece was on the end of a long string, there was a little shelf to write messages on attached to the front of the box as well.
then modern phones came along.
those kids would have been even ,more lost with one of thr party line phones.