Number, please.

It is probably difficult to comprehend, in today's environment, that there was a time before cell phones, before mobile bag phones, before touchtone phones, before dial phones. I grew up in the era before dial phones. Our phone number was 7J and we were on a party line. When the phone rang, you had to count the number of rings to know if it was your phone that was being called. When you picked up the receiver you had to make sure no one was already talking. If they were, you were supposed to hang up. If the operator answered, you could tell her what number you wanted her to call. For some reason I was scared to death of the telephone and didn't want to use it.