My sister used the phone so much she literally had to wear a band-aid on her right pointer finger to reduce blisters. LOL
As a kid, you could never compete for a radio call-in prize giveaway with someone who had a touch-tone phone (perhaps even with *gasp!* redial!) if all you had was a rotary phone.
I also learned at a young age that you could dial a phone just by tapping on the "on hook" button. This was handy at school when phones had a little lock in them to prevent unauthorized use.
My companies first sales manager(RIP)used the phone with the pad on top so you could cradle it on your shoulder. Standard phone jockey equipment in the 1960s, 70s, 80s.
He used it so much that his head was permanently tilted to the left.
I recall being in the car behind him and his head/neck was cocked to the left even when he was driving.
This was before there was the HEAD SET now used by most telemarketers. Well before the Plantronics cordless headset like the one on my desk.
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I remember the ol' hand crank phones. Take the receiver off the hanger
and turn the crank for the number you were calling. 2 shorts/1 long or
some other combination. 