As a life long urban dweller, wow.
Yep, there still are places like that in rural St. Landry Parish. I remember one day shortly after I purchased the farm, I was working setting out stakes for the grading contractor to put in gravel roads. This truck stopped and a portly, elderly gentleman waved me over to come talk to him. He was the president of the St. Landry Parish Police Jury (the parish government system). He was so drunk that he had to hold himself up hanging onto the door of the truck. He told me that he would help me if I needed anything done in the area. He said that if I wanted to run for any local elected office, that he could get me elected...black voters usually could be had for $20 and a pint of Jack Daniels..he owned the grocery, saloon and pool hall 1/4 mile from the farm and he would handle everything for me. I glanced inside his truck and saw the floorboard on the passenger side covered with empty liquor bottles. I said “Roy, it looks like you have had a lot to drink.” He replied, “Yes, I used to drink beer. But my doctor told me to stop drinking beer or it would kill me.” He died a few years later of liver failure. But he managed to drive drunk and not get arrested for many years...never went over 20 miles an hour even on the highway...everyone knew him and gave him a wide berth. These politicians were part of the system that kept blacks “in their place”...they had to be Dems or they would not get elected. Elbert is a real breath offresh air.