Can you 'here' me now?

In the Kennydale neighborhood of my youth we didn't make appointments or play dates. We'd just head to our pal's back yard door and yell for him/her. Just yell their name: "Ooaaannn!"; "Mmmiike!" and they would come out. No need to call ahead or knock and risk being faced by a mother, sister or some other unrequired person. The yellee would then come out to see "what's up" having gotten all domestic (non)permissions, warnings, etc. out of the way inside, sans yeller's presence (sometimes it was "you go out and tell him you can't come out 'til you..."; sometimes, "we're eating"; whatever). This simple, effective means of communication was used a lot in our immediate circle of friends. Not sure how widespread it was beyond our block. Somehow, I don't believe this would go over very well in our culture now, perhaps partly because kids don't "go out to play" as often or in the same way (we didn't "hang out"; we did stuff). Oan still drops in at the back door, but he quit yelling awhile ago.