When I was growing up in BC, no one had a private telephone line.  The phone itself was a wooden box hanging on the wall, with the receiver hanging on one side, and a crank on the other.  We were on line 48F, and the 04 meant your number was 0 short rings and 4 long rings.  When we called Grandma Lesley, her phone number was 48F22, so you turned the crank for two short and two long turns.  Of course roe first thing you had to do was listen to see if anyone else was using the line.  The bad part was that everyone on the same line knew who was being called and whether they needed to listen in to find out any good gossip that was flying around.  There was one old woman who listened in on every call.  Would you believe her name was Fairybell Leibert?  When the phone would ring I finally started saying hello to whoever was calling, then I would say hi to Fairybell.  Some times she would get pissed off and slam down her receiver, but very often.