I just remembered that when I was growing up -- in fact, in junior high, talking on the phone a lot, as junior highers will tend to do -- you only had to dial four digits (and the first was always 2) to call someone in our local area. And then, after talking for a few minutes (5 or 10), you'd get a beep and then two minutes later, you'd get cut off and have to call back. I guess they wanted to keep the lines clear for emergencies or something. No, I'm not really old; this was in the 80's! Ahh, sweet, sweet telephony memories...