In Brooklyn, in the 1940's we had no landline.

The brown, ugly telephone booths were in "SOFIE"S Candy store, across the Avenue.

Someone would come to fetch us, if we had a call. Imagine!

Then when some families got a phone, it would be a "Family-line'". This meant you shared a number with another family. One would have to wait until the phone "wasn't" busy so you could use it.

We never had that in our apartment, but Mama installed a lock on the phone dial. This stopped we kids from running up a big bill.