There was one fellow who had only half of his index finger and for years people teased him about losing his finger because of his going through pay phone coin returns. He was good natured about it but sometimes the story would expand as people speculated about just what pay phone did the damage. It was often very funny stuff.
I was in West Virginia a few months ago and there was a pay phone at a Rest Stop and I actually had my picture taken in front of it. Unfortunately it was not my cell phone that captured the image. One of these days I will get it. Still it did seem remarkable to have such an iconic thing right there in the middle of basically nowhere.
I’m gonna guess you were near Greenbank.
Was it in a dead area with no cell service? After phone booths were rare in most areas, rural Amish areas would have them for emergency use. Apparently OK to us a phone, just not to have one.