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.

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.