What is a loadie? A loadie is a Southern Tier, Western NY term for a rural stonerhead. The origins of this subculture occurred in the early to mid 70's in Western New York. The actual term Loadie is shrouded in myth but is believed to originated in the Gowanda lowlands to describe the local inhabitants. Loadie culture arose after the cultural upheavals of the 60's and the dissemination of counterculure music and fashion. Lynard Skynard, Ted Nugent, Nazareth, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, and Led Zepplin played a big role in shaping the look and music of the first generation loadie culture. Despite their longhair and drug use, loadies were generally politically conservative, mirroring Lynard Skynard and the Nuge political sentiment
Loadie Culture_part 2, Changing of the guard
Around 1982-83, a new breed of loadie evolved with new head crests and plumage. Listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Val Halen, these new mullet-wearing loadies evolved to fit into an environment abandoned by their predecessors. Gone were the mighty DiBlasi, the Schnars, and the Boardmans. These great beasts were replaces by the Depas (DEPII-plural) the Van Guilders, and the Jukes. Scream for Vengence!
Music that loadies listen to
Black Sabbath- When they want to raise hell
Led Zeppelin- When they are stoned and pondering the mysteries of the universe
The Nuge- When they want to wango tango!
AC/DC- When they want to do dirty deeds to be done dirt cheap
Lynard Skynard- When they are leaving you tomorrow
Any of the loadies that went to my school were actually Native Americans. I wrote a blog on myspace about Native Americans at my school. Here its is below.
Shadow Indians-Native Americans at SWCS
Category: Travel and Places
One of the curious things about SWCS was fact that when I was going to school there, there were many Native American kids also at my school. None of the kids I went to school talked about being a Native American. None of these kids talked about attending "The Longhouse" which is a kind of cultural-religious school of the Haudenosaunee-Iroquois.
The proper word for the Iroquois is Haudenosaunee, which means "People of the Long House." The two biggest reservations around my house were the Seneca reservations at Salamanca and Gowanda. There used to be a reservation at Corydon but the Kinzua Dam flooded area for the purpose of flood control even though the the dam violated the treaty made to Cornplanter in 1794. Johnny Cash wrote "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow" in support of the Senecas. The Senecas lost over 10,000 acres of land and 700 Senecas were force to relocate.
I wonder if some of the Native American kids at school were from around there. If I was a Seneca, I wouldn't attempted to assimilate into whitebread American, I would have worn deerskin clothes and had a Gustoweh headdress on my head.
The teachers at SWCS should have made a better attempt at relating Native American history to their students lives. I didn't realize how many Native Americans there were at Southwestern until after I left college.
