When was the last time you picked up a telephone and pressed “0” for an operator? I’m almost afraid to.
When is the last time you used a landline phone?
Everyday at work.
I use one every time I make or get a call at home.
In an office building, odds are good it’s VOIP
Didn’t they start charging for directory assistance using 411?
Then got rid of popcorn.
As a xenial, I don’t know when they didn’t charge for directory assistance? Was that with the breakup of the bells in the year I was born?
Probably. I’m old enough to remember party lines. If you don’t know what that is, when you picked up the receiver and someone else was on the line you had to wait til they hung up to use the phone. 
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The only place I heard about these was in family rumors and watching I Love Lucy Nick at Nite reruns.
It was also useful to hear the latest gossip kinda like people that lurk (but who don’t post) on Facebook.
I remember our first phone number was just 5 digits.
The phone had a ear piece hanging on the side of the receiver.
You could have any color you wanted as long as it was black.
Did you have to crank it as well?
No, but it had a rotary dial.
No, I think it started with the advent of the cell phone. One thing you probably aren’t familiar with but back in the day if I was in Texas and wanted to call my friend in Florida it could vary between $.10 and $.30 per minute to call them long distance. Today you can make a long distance call just like it’s local
In Massachusetts, it was 15 cents / min regardless of how far it was domestically.
With cell phones you can search for a business, click the “call” button and are connected. Easy peasy.
For some reason we still were delivered the Yellow Pages and some other directory a couple times a year, I would bring it from the front porch directly to the recycling bin. I think they stopped sending them last year.
As am I. I remember that different parties had different rings. There was an extra monthly charge if you wanted a private line. I also remember when my parents got a blue wall phone to replace the black one (also an extra monthly charge).
My grand aunt wrote about growing up in rural Tennessee. When her family got their first telephone in 1922-1923, they had to disconnect it whenever there was a storm. If not, someone could get a large electric shock if lightning struck anywhere near the phone line.