You mean a "party line" ? Been there done that too.

Probably not. Just intrastate long distance within the same area code could cost as much as an (expensive) cross-country call. Phone rates were oriented towards rarely calling outside of your immediate town and its neighbors.

To some of the other comments about email, I was the chair of a non-profit board for many years. And while, everyone eventually on the board got on email, it probably took at least a decade and I recall at one point, I used an MCI service that would print out and snail mail an email to the laggards.

> I used an MCI service that would print out and snail mail an email to the laggards.

Was that before or after the USPS offered the same service ?

Don't know. This would have been early to mid-80s I think.

Sounds like almost the opposite - it sounds like they lived on the border of what would be considered a local call, so people could be geographically local but telegraphically expensive.

Yep. Pizza places would have five or six phone numbers so that everyone in their delivery area could call them on a local line and avoid toll charges.