I grew up with these things, but they look so weird now, like a Tardis.
I remember having fun as a kid placing a reverse charge call from one phone booth to another across the street. Apparently the operator didn't have a way of knowing the number you were asking to make a call to was a phone booth, so your buddy across the street answers the operators call and graciously agrees to accept the reverse charge call (which is then free - no need to put any money in).
> Apparently the operator didn't have a way of knowing the number you were asking to make a call to was a phone booth,
They did.
In the UK, when a payphone _answered_ a call, the payphone played a "cuckoo" tone (beep-boop) for about ten seconds. This alerted the operator not to allow reverse charge calls. Of course in more recent yeas an operator probably hasn't a clue what the payphone cuckoo means, hence you getting away with it.
I remember having fun as a kid placing a reverse charge call from one phone booth to another across the street. Apparently the operator didn't have a way of knowing the number you were asking to make a call to was a phone booth, so your buddy across the street answers the operators call and graciously agrees to accept the reverse charge call (which is then free - no need to put any money in).