all abandoned.

I picked up the ringing payphone and dutifully said, "hello?" There was no one there. All I could hear was a solid 440hz tone coming loudly through the payphone's handset speaker. I hung the phone up and approached the other children that were nearby and asked why they were laughing. They showed me that they had dialed NYNEX's ringback test circuit, and how to use it.

In the Catskills, then the 914 area code (now 845), the code was to dial 660, plus the last four digits of the phone number you were calling from (printed under the handset hook on most payphones). Then you would hear a dial tone, at which point, you could do an optional dialpad test (dialing 1-9, *, 0, and #). If all 12 tones were received, the dial tone would hiccup twice indicating success. Of course, the real trick was the ringback - simply flashing the switch hook for a moment activated the ring back. One you flashed the switch hook, you would hear a 440hz tone instead of a dial tone. Then, when you hung up, you would hear the 440hz tone again.

Also, cool wallpaper patterning next to the phone booth.

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