I wasn't old enough to remember seeing it used, but we have our original wooden crank phone.  Refinished it and have it in my dads shed yet. My mom used to work the phones for awhile. Telling us how they used those cables to plug into where the call went. We were on the farm and had a party line. So you had to remember what number of rings was for you. But mom always knew when one of the nosey neighbors would pick up and listen in on you conversation.