Greenwood Soul Mates – Forrest Hodge
For us, “soul” represents that unique essence each person contributes to their community, weaving a colorful tapestry of stories, talents, cultural experiences, and more. In Greenwood, this tapestry is formed by numerous unique individuals whose captivating stories and deep connections to the region’s food, music and history define our identity as a town and make Greenwood such an extraordinary place to visit. These remarkable individuals are our “Soul Mates.”
We’ve had soul mates who have adopted Greenwood as their home and others who were born and raised here and then moved back. But this month’s Soul Mate, Forrest Hodge, was born in Greenwood and has never left – that is except for the four years he commuted to Delta State to earn a marketing degree while working a full-time job in Greenwood. A true Delta boy. A true Greenwoodian.
“Greenwood is all I know,” said Forrest. “I have never really thought about leaving. I love the small-town life where everyone knows your name. I love being connected to so many people.”
Forrest now works as the Sales and Events Manager for the legendary Alluvian Hotel & Spa. He often donates his spare time to hosting group tours of Greenwood. Whether it’s a scheduled group tour or even a tour for a couple of friends, he does it all. He started tours in 2017 and shows everything from the movie scenes in The Help, to the blues and music history landmarks of Robert Johnson and Bobbie Gentry. Forrest will pretty much talk about Greenwood to anyone who will listen.
“I just love a captive audience and a microphone,” he said. “My parents raised me here and taught me to know history and the town where you live. So, I love to bring pride to this community by sharing that history with visitors. I have even toured my friends and can literally talk about Greenwood all day.”
He really enjoys his job setting up various events from weddings to receptions and corporate retreats. He had a similar job working at the Hampton Inn from 2006-2012 and then worked for Greenwood’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for three years.
“The Alluvian caters in-house, so I plan all that and have spent most of my adult life just sharing hospitality,” he said. “I call myself an introverted extrovert. I absolutely love meeting people, and the people are the reason I do what I do. The beauty of staying at the Alluvian is you can walk everywhere. Downtown Greenwood has a vibe.”
“I love meeting visitors from out of state and overseas. It’s my chance to challenge the negative stereotypes about Mississippi. I lead a fulfilling life here and want others to see the rich quality of life we have—just as fertile as the Delta soil.”
Forrest even teaches fitness classes at Studio A in his spare time. He’s always been active but one day he took a random step cardio class and couldn’t move for two days. That’s when he realized how much he needed to cross-train.
“Changing it up really challenged me. I started taking different fitness classes and then there was a vacancy when an instructor left, and I decided to go for it and take the plunge. My dad has always been my inspiration, and I knew he’d be proud.”
Forrest values family as much as he values Greenwood. He’s been married to local nurse and church choirmaster organist Paul Brown for 13 years. They both attend Immaculate Mary Catholic church, and Paul is an accomplished vocal performer. Forrest also beams with pride when talking about his father.
“I lost my dad a year ago, and we used to spend a lot of time running together,” he said. “He got me into running, and he always paid my fee in every race we entered. This year was the first time I had to pay my fee in a race. I will try to keep doing this in his honor. I have a ton of memories with him, and what’s great about that is he kept a YouTube channel and blogged almost every day. My sister and I are so lucky because we can go on there and watch him anytime we want. That’s special.”
But of all the extracurricular activities Forrest engages in, the Greenwood Little Theater lives at the top. Forrest, who has been involved in a dozen plays and directed six. Forrest just completed staging the hit “Clue.”
“I acted in some, but I found my niche more behind the scenes,” he said. “It is so inspiring to cast the people and then see them be successful, especially those who have never done it. Clue was cancelled when COVID hit, so it’s awesome to be able to put it all together years later. I absolutely love taking words from the page and bringing them to life.”
And if Forrest had to pick his favorite day every year without hesitation he exclaimed, “Parade Day!”
“Christmas Parade Day is absolutely my favorite Greenwood Day,” he said. “I have such great memories of the parade, getting out of school early and helping my mom put up the tree. I feel like Greenwood has such unity on this day. It’s fun to hop from house to house on Grand Boulevard and then listen to the marching bands and watch the fireworks. There’s nothing better.”
With all of this knowledge, we asked Forrest to recommend an ideal one-day Greenwood itinerary when these special events weren’t happening. Take a look at his recommendations!
Forrest reaches deeper when asked about the “soul” of Greenwood.
“Greenwood is just different,” he said. “It’s a deeper meaning for me and hard to put into words. Living in Greenwood really embodies the Bible verse of ‘love thy neighbor.’”
On that same level of emotions, describing Greenwood in one word Forrest said “Authentic.”
“I don’t feel like anyone in Greenwood puts on any airs,” he said. “That’s why so many people like Greenwood. What you see is what you get, and we treat everyone like they are local. We’re a community of real people.”
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