I’m old enough to have grown up in a neighborhood with a party line. For under 55 people that means our phone line was shared amongst all the families in the neighborhood. Push the ring button once for the operator, 2 times for the smiths, 3 times for the Jones and so on. Moms pushed the ring number for their own house at dinner and it rang in every other house. If you were there at another house their mom sent you home. If you left the neighborhood, you were dead meat.