Whippersnapper, you made my jaw drop. Not growing up in a family that didn't have a party line I could understand if you lived in a large city, but never used a rotary phone is shocking to me.
Please don't be offended, because I had a forty year career in telecommunications going back to the mid-1970's and retired from Verizon after 31 years. I'm pretty biased in my assumptions.
I sold my 1953 house in 1993 & the kitchen still had a wall mounted rotary phone.
I also understood rotary phones, from watching Hitchcock movies. Dial M for Murder, The Birds, etc.
You could get trapped in a phone booth. You have to be home to wait for calls. Operators come on with creepy voices. You don’t know who’s calling if you don’t answer. And the ring could make you jump out of your skin!
On the other hand, with a rotary phone you could call a doctor and he would come to your house.