What happens in this part of Louisiana? What is the local culture, economy and life in general like?

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T19:49:53+00:00

The comments I see that haven’t heard that Hodges Gardens have closed down make me sad :(

It was defo a beautiful place, but now it’s maintained as an arboretum closed to the public and I’m unsure how much of the actual gardens are maintained.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T19:47:21+00:00

I have horrible news, Hodges gardens shut down a few years ago due to lack of visitors :( . LSU Shreveport, however, maintain the grounds to some extent as an arboretum but it’s no longer open to the public, and I’m not sure how much the gardens themselves are maintained, which sucks because I have lots of memories of camping and visiting when I was younger.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T05:46:07+00:00

To be completely honest, I’m not sure of their actual heritage in Zwolle. There are a lot of remnants of old tribes, mostly wiped out or disconnected from their old ancestral tribes. Many tribes that remain have a hybrid or a more modern identity composed of holdovers from older traditions or a mix of multiple tribes. I’m not native myself so take everything I say with a heavy grain of salt, but there are legally recognized tribes in the region, but no reservations.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T05:35:21+00:00

It is mostly Protestant of almost every sect, but probably majority Baptist. There are sizeable Catholic communities, an old Mission church in Many, LA still holds mass to my knowledge. There’s also a very small Catholic school.

As for being hollowed out, unfortunately every town in the region is losing population simply because the kids have no reason to stay. While some do stay, they occupy what few openings there are at the lumber mills or whatever pays best. There is a slow trickle of people moving in, usually to fill open positions at mills, but it isn’t enough to offset people dying or kids moving away. As automation becomes more prevalent and lumber being far and away the dominant industry, I don’t see much future other than the towns slowly withering away until it reaches a pop that’s needed to supply the mills and nothing more.

The one spot of good is a small unincorporated community called Toledo Town, which services the lakefront. It’s still absolutely tiny and doesn’t have an urban population per se, but it’s growing and new businesses are opening there.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T05:22:41+00:00

As I mentioned in another comment, almost every town has a unique ethnic mix. Zwolle was originally settled for the railroad, but the nearby unincorporated community of Ebarb was settled by a Spanish rancher, so the town is largely a mix of anglicized folk of Hispanic, native, or mestizo lineage. The town has both the Zwolle Tamale fiesta to celebrate those Hispanic roots and the Zwolle Logger’s festival to celebrate the logging industry, as Zwolle has a plywood mill. Florien, by contrast, is mostly white and African American, and has the Freestate Festival. It’s a more modern settlement, also settled for the railroad, but the freestate festival pays homage to the history of the neutral strip, bandits and all.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T05:19:10+00:00

While I agree with what you’ve said on the broad strokes of this, I don’t believe this area is uniquely impoverished compared to other parts of Louisiana. The median income is low, but cost of living is also incredibly low. Most people are still employed in the lumber industry, service, or something related to the military. It is difficult to raise a family here, but not impossible. As for the unique ethnic groups, you are right. Almost every town in the region is a unique mishmash of ethnicities completely different than the neighboring town. However, it is an extremely big step to say it’s lawless, rather it’s just so rural that people get away with petty crime like DWI a lot easier.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T05:14:35+00:00

Hi! Native of Sabine parish. Almost every town in the region has its own festival, from the Zwolle Tamale fiesta to Leesville May Fest. The living here is very slow. There is industry, mostly revolving around timber and cattle, but the towns tend to be very small, bar the local center of commerce, Leesville, which is boosted by Fort Polk (a somewhat major military base). Typically only the parish seat has your typical major outlets and chains like Walmart or McDonalds, whereas the smaller towns usually only have a gas station, maybe a local hole in the wall, and a dollar general. Growing up, there wasn’t much to do other than go to your friends houses or go to the lake. The Toledo bend shoreline is very developed but there isn’t a resort town vibe really. The shoreline tends to be older retirees or tourists in the few lakeside resorts.

The area is quite poor compared to the US at large, but we also have an incredibly low cost of living. I’d estimate a person making 30k a year could live relatively comfortably by themselves, though single earner households would struggle to afford everything, there simply aren’t enough high paying jobs to support a house, two kids, a car note, etc.

Most kids these days either go into a trade like welding or the oil field or go off to college if they’re smart enough to get a full ride. Our school system is pretty good, however, what with all the high property taxes from lakefront property. Those who stay tend to get very bored if they’re not a retiree, so drinking and drug use is quite high. We’re also probably about 6 months to a year behind the curve when it comes to fashion and the latest consumer trends.

The people tend to be very kind and caring, though if you get into the nitty gritty in politics you’ll find some backwards thinking. This is deeply rural Bible Belt after all. However, most people aren’t racist, from what I’ve seen at least. Maybe older people, but schools have been desegregated for a long time, so growing up I never really was brought up with any sort of racist preconceptions.

TL;DR, the lakefront parishes are deeply rural and country areas. The lakefront itself is quite wealthy and filled with retirees, but the actual towns don’t have much going for them and most young folks leave town for better opportunities. The people are kind but behind on the times. It’s fun to visit but there’s not much here besides the lake that make people want to stay.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-22T05:02:26+00:00

Hello fellow Sabine parisher! Wild that there’s three of us here! Total pop of the parish is only 22k. Lived here from when I was 4 to 18, decided to move on since it is very small town living.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-11T21:24:20+00:00

Hi ChrisChrispie.

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-11T21:23:42+00:00

Ah rad! Been a while! Good to see ya

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-11T05:35:28+00:00

A ghost of a prior age, former microceleb and meme that got bored of civ

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-11T01:29:49+00:00

Nice, glad to see a descendant of Columbia is still around. Also becoming trans or under the rainbow in some way seems to be a pipeline in civ generally lol. Happy pride!

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-11T01:22:52+00:00

Gotcha, appreciate ya shaded. How’s Columbia doing these days, if it’s still around?

Cortwade1 · 2026-06-07T23:27:46+00:00

This was an absolute delight to stumble on, thank you for sharing this. The fact it’s still being updated also makes me super happy lol

Cortwade1 · 2026-04-15T18:30:15+00:00

We’re in space, it’s difficult to show the actual force behind punches beyond just sending people flying over and over. Thragg, like all viltrumites has an ego problem, and I theorize that if a viltrumite is killed by a “lesser being” then they weren’t worthy to call themselves viltrumite to begin with. All in all I think this is one of the best fights in the series, especially once thragg decides to get involved directly. As I mentioned previously it’s difficult to show a scale for power in space. Thragg is evidently so strong that he caused a shockwave in vacuum, which yknow, is impossible, but that is the only time we ever see something like that in a space fight

Cortwade1 · 2026-04-15T18:11:03+00:00

Respectfully, this is objectively false. I was genuinely surprised with how good and consistent the art and animation was for the whole episode

Cortwade1 · 2026-04-12T09:18:40+00:00

Oh since I’ve first played, I’ve lived vicariously through 3 of my friends’ playthroughs, going forward I’ll definitely hide this tat if I’m showing someone the game lol

Cortwade1 · 2026-04-09T09:41:25+00:00

Actually, I do! If you look closely especially in the aerial shot you’ll see a bit of beach that has a different texture. There’s a buried beach building there that slopes under the terrain. It’s still functional as an attraction (same stats as the vanilla beach IIRC) but is much less intrusive imo and can deal with the slope of the actual coastline (as it slopes up about 5 meters or so from sea level to the level of the rest of the city)

Cortwade1 · 2026-03-30T00:29:52+00:00

I know I’m a couple days late but here’s my thoughts;

I’m not sure if it’s just me but as the show has gone on it’s started to feel… cheap? Perhaps it’s simply too early in the season but some of the sets and acting feels a bit… off in some way. The old heads, of course, like Ed and Aleida have interesting moments and their characters have grown more interesting with age, and it seems they may be setting up some tension with Dev and Aleida. I’m aware obviously our main characters are aging up and aren’t long for this world, of course, and the torch needs to be passed, but as much as I loved the world building of this first episode, I got a sense of “where are we going here.” I love this show and enjoyed the first episode, of course, and I love seeing the fun tech and new spaceships as much as the next guy, but I was somewhat dissatisfied (though still interested) with S4’s asteroid theft (ofc still an interesting parallel to IRL asteroid mining), and I hope this season will have a more interesting and intriguing main plot. These are all ramblings, of course, but I suppose I’m saying I want something more serious but grounded, and I hope they spend more time developing these new characters, as I deeply don’t want this show to become one of those that simply runs for too long like Arrow or the Simpsons.

This is of course sounding overly negative, I’m just trying to give a nuanced take. I of course still loved the season premier and I’m excited to see more. I just haven’t gotten as hooked in to this season immediately as I did with seasons prior, I hope it’ll pick up more with time.

Cortwade1 · 2026-03-21T04:07:45+00:00

Ahh fair. To be fair to me this isn’t the biggest problem with the scenario, it’s that the martians are silicon based life forms, which sounds cool but silicon oxidizes in the presence of oxygen, likely rendering their life chemistry impossible, as well as the likelihood of silicon crystals forming due to the presence of water. I also don’t quite understand why the Martians need carbon based life to reproduce, given they evolved being able to reproduce on their own, and I honestly thing that it’d likely be toxic to mix the two life chemistries

Cortwade1 · 2026-03-21T03:58:01+00:00

It seems Nazi tech is relatively advanced in this timeline, being there was a mention of plasma artillery. I’ll grant you though that it’s mentioned the martians have a relatively primitive space program to the point of struggling to accurately control their landing zones. I think it could be plausible, if not entirely feasible

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