@foolishowl@social.coop Before the 1984 breakup of the Bell System, you were *not allowed* (if you got phone service in a place where the local phone company was a Bell) to have a phone on which the ringer could be disabled. You had to lease your phone from Bell and Bell phones did not allow the ringer to be silenced. (They would, however, lease you an *extra* ringer, for less money than a whole phone would cost, so you could put one in the shop / basement / garage and rush to the kitchen when it rang.)