We had a phone exactly like that one when I went off to college in the ‘80s. Bakelite exterior, metal dial, cloth-covered cord. Darn thing weighed several pounds and would probably be classified as a deadly weapon.
I was born in 1966 so when I was a kid, my tiny Virginia town still had the alpha-numeric dial system. The exchange was 946 (listed sometimes as VI 6) and we only had to dial five digits to call locally; so somebody in town would just call 6-5464 to call us. This actually worked until the mid-70s. And there was no 911, in fact they didn’t have a true E911 system until the early ‘90s.
}:-)4
And for us girls who wanted to preserve our manicures...used the end of a pencil/pen to dial.
I remember when push-button phones first came out. Everybody wondered what the pound key and star key were for, and the phone company would just reply, “That’s for the future.” I kept my rotary phone long after most people had push button. I remember people visiting me and asking to use my phone, and they’d complain and gripe about the rotary. But I always liked it. Somehow it was more satisfying to dial on a rotary.