Pranks calls:
Call a friends house and tell their parents to come pick them up at the police station to bail them out.
Call a random Brown family and ask for Charlie.
Dial random number and cry on the phone because they picked up on our last dime needed to call home.
There used to be a guy who hung out at Dupont Circle in DC in a three-piece suit asking for 85 cents “so I can call my office in New York.”
For a while, he made a six-figure income doing that.
“Hello, Mrs. ___. I’m from teh phone company. We’re testing the lines for the next 20 minutes, so if your phone rings, please don’t pick it up, OK?”
“OK.”
“Thank you.” Hang up.
Wiat about five minutes. Call back. Keep it ringing until they pick up.
“Hello?”
(Simulate elctrocution noises, then scream “Aaaaahhhh!”
Hang up.
Good one!
When three-way calling came out (way before star-69 and Caller ID), we used to connect “Teenagers Telephone” listings to the main(parents’) number late at night and listen to the parent yell at the kid for playing around.
Or we’d connect up a couple who had just broken up.
Living in Houston at that time, we’d connect up two astronauts’ homes (it was amazing how many of them were listed in the phone book) and listen to them (or family members) debate who called who. “But my phone rang and I answered.” “But mine rang too. This is strange…”