LOL Diana, those Halloween costumed relatives are pretty funny! I bet you really were puzzled! When my sister in law pulled the gorilla costume on us, it was in the spring, not anywhere near Halloween, so we were just bumfuzzled!
When I was living with my grandparents we had one of those old time phones with the crank. Our "ring" was one long ring, two short rings and then one long ring. When you turned the crank, everyone on the party line could hear the phone ring and you had to listen for your "ring". My aunt's "ring" was one short ring, two long rings, and one short ring. I don't know how many were on our party line, maybe 10 homes, I'm not sure. Anyway, when I was about 4, and everyone was out of the house doing chores, I would get on the phone and crank away, which of course caused A LOT of ringing in everyone's house on the party line. One time a man got on the phone when I was ring ring ringing and told me if I didn't get off the phone he was going to come cut my ear off.
Let me tell you, that was the last time I played with the phone. That scared me to death!!!