That brought back memories. To think there was a time when directory enquiries was free and you spoke to a real human, armed with a telephone book. Sometimes you could be on hold for a while, however, you could also be vague with your enquiry, for the operator to check spelling variants for you.

Everyone used to be in the phone book, to get anyone's number was just a matter of detective work, particularly if there were lots of 'J Smith' entries and you only had a vague idea where they lived.

We didn't have scam callers but 'wrong number' was quite common. People also used to phone their friends more often, since text messaging, email and apps were not available options.