July 8, 2020 • 23 mins
Rainbow Valentine talks to her New York Lemur cousins about what their uncle Walter Lemur was up to in New York City during his East Coast smuggling trips.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
School of Humans. Hilariously, Walter was a connoisseur of many, many,
many things, including shampoo. You know when you mentioned I'm like, oh,
my god, yeah, we always had fancy shampoo. But I
didn't I didn't realize this fancy shampoo. I'm talking to
(00:33):
my cousin, who I call my twin cousin, as we
share the same birthday and have many similar characteristics. When
we were kids, we bonded over our love of the
book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Bloom.
Twin Cousin's memory of my dad's fondness for expensive shampoo
reminded me that fancy shampoo was a thing in my
(00:53):
childhood home, Coconut flavored shampoo. I mean, it was like
thirty dollars a bottle. Boy, was my hair soft after that?
Oh god, that's funny. Now. My twin cousin and his
brother cousin Scientist, grew up in New York City, which
was the other side of my dad's cross country pot
smuggling business, and unlike me, my cousins as children picked
(01:17):
up signs that my dad was a unique kind of entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur definition a person who organizes and operates a business
or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in
order to do so. And although they were kids, my
New York cousins had a vague understanding that their uncle
was an entrepreneur taking on more than just financial risks.
(01:40):
I saw. There was never too much to wonder, whatever
perspective I had. I just knew God and he had money. Yeah,
the place smuggling, I'm Rainbow Valentine. This is disorganized crime.
Smuggler's daughter and grooving. Making it up. We rolled along,
(02:13):
rolling along country, roll the Great in the Golden Gag Dog,
New York State, making it up as we roll. When
(02:42):
I was growing up in the nineteen eighties, my dad
traveled frequently to New York City for work, which seemed
very glamorous to me. New York was, you know, I mean,
the world of characters in that town. It was never ending.
They're great hot dogs. You didn't realize how great a
hot dog until you came out here and ate the
(03:03):
ship that they served in Call dogs in California. My
childhood understanding of New York City was based on the
musical Annie, about a plucky singing orphan, and the Eloise
books about a sassy, almost orphan who lives in the
Plaza Hotel. So as a kid, I believe, slash hoped
my dad was in New York City schmoozing with Broadway
(03:24):
producers who would soon discover me tap dancing and opera
singing in our mill Valley house and launch my fantasy
Broadway orphan career. Now that never happened, because my dad
was in New York City schmoozing with smugglers, not Broadway producers.
The closest you got to my daydream was being the
only other person at the movies with Gene Hackman. So
(03:46):
one afternoon I go to a movie. I can't remember
what movie it is, and it's a big theater and
nobody's in it. It's like two in the afternoon, and
I go up to the balcony because it's the best
place to sort of said, and there's only one other
person sitting in the balcony, and that's a Gene hack
There's nobody else in the theater but the two of us.
(04:10):
I was curious about what dad was up to in
New York on all those business trips, and he told
me it was as much about leisure as business. It
was often on years that I would be going to
New York because that was the best place. That was
where all my outlets to sell were, and so I'd
go back there to oversee it, or to bring money
(04:33):
back sometimes, or just to go hang out. Can you
imagine driving around New York City with pounds of pot
in your trunk? I asked my dad about this, driving
around New York City with a carload of pot. It's
like this stress of driving the country roads of northern
California multiplied by a thousand, No big deal. And when
(05:01):
I'm on the country roads in California or whatever, delivering truck,
you see maybe three cars in an hour or none
or whatever. So you have relatively good control of your
ability to prevent an accident. In New York City, you
have no control to prevent an accident because they're coming
(05:24):
at you every which way but loose. You have no
control over what they're doing and what kind of drugs
they've taken, and how drunk they are and whatever, And
all you need is one little vender bender. I guess
I never thought of this then, because you just don't
think about those. You're just careful in how you drive.
(05:44):
You know, there's a certain confidence and the belief. It's
not that you're going to get could. The belief is
that you're just cool. Nothing's happening. If you think as
a paranoid, you attract paranoid energy. So when my dad
was in New York, he had few options of places
(06:06):
to stay with old childhood friends, like the cameraman or
at one of his sister's places. My dad has two
older sisters, and my New York cousins are the children
of my dad's oldest sister, another intellectual artist Lemur. Anyway,
the rumors about what your dad did for a living,
here's my cousin's scientist. Like, people ask what people do
(06:28):
for a living. It's just a normal question that people
ask me. So I would ask my mom like, I
would say, what does uncle Walter do for a living.
And she would say, oh, he's an entrepreneur. And I
was like, wow, an entrepreneur, Mom, what's an entrepreneur? And
she would say something like, oh, well, he does business,
(06:50):
he starts businesses, he does stuff like that, And I
was like, huh okay, And I didn't really you know,
So I always thought of Walter as just this guy
who is doing business here and business. There. One thing
that kind of would happen is my mom when she
(07:12):
would get drunk or a little stoned or whatever, you know,
she would start saying things about Walter, like you want
to Like she was like, you want to you want
to know something? And I'd be like, what, Walter, he's
like a drug dealer And I was like, what what
does that mean? And she goes, but he's not a
(07:33):
drug dealer, He's like one of the you know, the
higher ups. And I was like, what what does that
even mean? Now? Cousin Scientist was a difficult kid, and
once when he was ten, he was sent to our
house in northern California during summer vacation, where he got
a total culture shock. If you're the culture out in
(07:53):
northern California was so different than the East Coast. Like,
I mean, I remember your I remember your dad took
us all to some hippie camp. The main memories I
have about it everybody swam around nude and I was
(08:13):
expected to do that too, And it was the most horrifying,
embarrassing thing I ever was involved in in my entire life,
before or after. The place my cousin's referring to is
sweet Smell, a hippie family art and music camp my
family used to attend in the seventies. It was like
a psychedelic arts version of a Catskills family resort. According
(08:35):
to my mom, Sweet Smell was created by the people
who owned the sadly now elapsed Renaissance Pleasure Fair of
Northern California, an iconic historic cultural event that arguably laid
the groundwork for today's Burning Manifestival. A lake, you didn't
have to bring food. The sky set up a coffee place,
(08:59):
so in the afternoon you could go have coffee and
chea and schmooz. And then people taught dance and drumming,
and so people brought their instruments and then there was
a rough swing on the lake for all the kids.
You know, it works like a pre runner of the
Sand Party, but you know, it's just a creative place
(09:21):
to go hang out. What yeah, Oh my god. When
my mom says sand Party, she's referring to Burning Dan.
She's so cute. Now. Sweet Smell Family Camp is still
operating today. It's populated by an insular click of artists
who keep the Sweet Smells website private, along with a
(09:42):
camp which is invite only these days. My mom also
remembers the nude swimmers who horrified cousins Scientist, as do I.
At Sweet Smell, hippies would swim nude and during the
night they would belly dance, fully dressed by the way,
in fabulous costumes, and they'd pass a joint around the campfire.
This was just totally normal. Do you remember there being
hippies on the beach and the lake. Yeah, you know what,
(10:04):
the beach could been a good or you could be
topless or but you know, at dance they had a
hoofing class or tap class and you could go and
you know, you wore clothes for your classes. No, my
mom clarifies this was not a nudist camp. They were
just swimming naked at the lake, which was very common
(10:26):
for hippies to swim nude. And my mom also remembers
cousin scientist having a hard time fitting in. I remember
his diet because she wouldn't eat anything, you know, except
for hard boiled eggs and peanuts. Him and his fucking
hard boiled eggs. It was really funny and stubborn. Another
thing that was a culture shock for me. Here's cousin
(10:48):
scientist again. Was all the pot that everybody was smoking,
like I had seen a little bit of that on
the East Coast because my mom was kind of my
mom would have been more beat nikki or bohemian, you know,
as opposed to your dad, who was clearly a you know,
the hippie class. Now, cousin scientist makes a distinction between
(11:10):
his mom being a bohemian and my dad being a hippie,
which is funny because my dad is adamant he's not
a hippie, and I understand what he means because there
are many different levels of hippies, just like many different
levels of Christians, Muslims, punk rockers, what have you. So
he is a hippie to some people, right like cousins
scientists from New York City, But to my dad, who's
(11:33):
living amongst like the hippiest of the hippies and sees
them around, he is not a hippie. Hippies do not
drive BMW's. When I got back, I kind of felt like, WHOA,
I've seen some stuff that my friends never would have seen,
you know. So as a little kid come faning back,
I felt like, you know, much more worldly than the
(11:54):
other kids around because I had seen I've been to
California and seen all the hippies in their natural habitat,
you know, doing all the crazy hippie stuff that they do,
swimming around, dude smoking lots of pot. And I had
a weird upbringing, and I walked into a weirder culture,
and you know it was in the end, it was
(12:16):
a good experience to be exposed at a young age
to such a different culture, because I think everybody should
be thrown in the deep end at some point in
their life. This is hilarious to me because I felt
the same awe the first time I visited New York City,
admiring native New Yorkers like my cousins, naturally navigating subways,
(12:37):
bodega's and deli's. This is disorganized crime. We'll be right
back now. Another discovery this podcast has uncovered is learning
(12:57):
that throughout his twenty two years smuggling career, my dad
was supporting his family of origin on the East Coast
as well. Here's my twin cousin again. He would stay
with us, but he would spend a lot of money
when he was with us. Walter fixed my mom's car up,
got it all fixed up, took it to the mechanic,
(13:19):
got everything done, paid for everything. He also helped my
mom buy an apartment in the Box in the eighties,
which we lived in for many years. Generosity has always
been second nature to my dad. He gave away a
(13:41):
lot of his money to artists, friends, family, And while
there's no more extra money today and hasn't been for years,
it's nice to know that while he had it, he
shared the wealth. For me has always been important to
be able to share the wealth, sometimes a little too much.
(14:04):
It felt really good to be able to help her out.
And so I bought her in an apartment and then
had Hi Fi remodeling I mean, opened it up, blah
blah all the stuff, because I was into remodeling and building.
(14:25):
Your dad was very generous with my mom. Here's my
cousin's scientist. So and not only that, Hi Fi came
over and redid one of the bathrooms. So, as far
as I knew at the time, Hi Fi was your
dad's carpenter friend. Now, while we know Hi Fi as
my dad's trusted guy in New York City who my
(14:47):
dad left on the battlefield, cousin Scientist saw Hi Fi
as simply my dad's carpenter friend. In the eighties, my
dad visited New York a lot for business, and he
would share more than just money with his family. Hot
was as common as furniture where we're from, and Dad
(15:08):
would leave some of it for a sister's a prime
opportunity for my board teen cousin. He would give my
mom like big bags. A pot was in the multiple
ounces of weight, which is a lot when you're you know,
(15:28):
to see when you're that young. I mean. The thing is, though,
my mom really never used it, so she accumulated a
couple of these bags, but she did really accumulating accumulate
them because I was basically pilfering from them all the time,
(15:50):
and so, you know, it was a little bit over
a long period of time. But eventually my mom went
to look forward and realized that it was gone and
told Walter and Walter was like, what the hell happened?
You know, we had to sit down, oh, me, him
and my mom because he apparently was shocked that I
(16:14):
was doing this kind of behavior. And he was like,
what you do? What happened to all that pot? What'd
you do with it? And I didn't know what to say,
so and I was kind of embarrassed that I had
smoked most of it myself. So I lied and I
said I pulled it to my friends, which was totally untrue.
(16:35):
I really just spoke most of it myself. You know,
Oh my god, hilarious. It wasn't hilarious at the time.
It was the most mortifying, embarrassing thing to happen. My
dad has no memory of this memorable and significant event
to my cousin's scientist, illustrating how humans memories of the
same event are different and subjective, and reminds me of
(16:59):
the meaningful moment in my youth when my older sister
told me our parents were pot smugglers, an event she
has no memory of. The older one did that. No,
I mean it's hard to remember. I mean Pat was
you know, Pat was just sort of like a chair.
(17:23):
There was there was always a lot of it around,
and so I guess I gave it to her them.
I just don't remember. I mean, we didn't leave it out,
but it was, you know, if anybody, I just gave
it away to everybody I knew that was sort of
part of the gig. Now, twin cousin has a slightly
(17:48):
different story than his brother. He also remembers Hi Fi
as the carpenter and remembers tons of pot around their
apartment when my dad would visit. So also there was
kind of like the smell of bud of weed, like
my brother and my mother were recipients of socks full
(18:09):
of of weed, and it would walk through the house
under the doors. And I mean, I guess I vaguely
knew what it was, but not really. Yeah, I'm pretty
sure my mom blabbed it at some point early on
(18:36):
when your child of your uncle visiting my dad, Are
they fond memories? I mean, did he strike you as
over overly generous, like wonderfully generous? Was it like surprising, No,
he see, it seemed like it was coming from a
very um genuine place, you know, like like family. Yeah,
(18:58):
And I think I think he wanted he wanted things
to be good with the East Coast peeps, because you know,
there's part of the story is fleeing the East Coast
because it's so uptight, disgusting. My dad was fleeing the
oppression of city living in old East Coast traditions while
(19:22):
simultaneously seeking the center of the cultural arts and music movement,
which turned out to be Marin County in the seventies,
where the Psychedelic Pioneers migrated after the Summer of Love
kind of ruined San Francisco. According to many Psychedelic Pioneers,
New York City was and still is busy bustling, a
place of business, and its leisure comes in the forms
(19:42):
of culture and nightlife rather than nature and hiking. My
dad is a nature enthusiast. He's a high strung heb
who thrives in a relaxed country setting, so fleeing New
York and its hustle bustle for the laid back vibes
of Marine County in northern California, who was a life
saver for my dad. Now both or this podcast, my
(20:06):
dad still hadn't revealed the details of his smuggler life
to his New York family. He still forbids me from
sharing the podcast with his older sisters. It wasn't until
recently that my dad even mentioned telling cousins scientist anything
as an adults. At some point, I think your dad
(20:28):
started insinuating things, but never with any details either. Like
he would say, Oh, I've got some stories to tell you,
and I'd be like, well, like what, and he would
let you be like someday, you know, not now, and
I would be like, okay, you know, And I never
(20:49):
got a straight story out of him. Ever. Pot, like vodka, tobacco,
or beer, reflects the ethos of a subculture, peace, love,
and rock and roll. That's the ethos of the hippies,
and cannabis being the stimulent of choice fundamentally represents that ethos. Now,
(21:10):
my East Coast cousins noticed my dad's fancy shampoo and
pot because it wasn't part of their New York City subculture.
Cousin scientist was shocked by sweet smell and the naked
swimming hippies because he grew up in the Bronx, where
there's a dearth of clothing optional swimming holes. Side note,
let it be known I have always rolled my eyes
(21:32):
at naked swimming hippies and would prefer humans wear swimsuits
at public swimmers. So the question is, what's your subculture's ethos?
Right in and let me know because I love subcultures.
You can find me on the social media Rainbow Valentine, Lemur.
I'm Rainbow Valentine and this is disorganized crime. Thanks so
(21:52):
much for listening. Disorganized Crime Smuggler's Daughter is written and
(22:14):
recorded by Me Rainbow Valentine. Our producers are Gabby Watts
and Taylor Church. Executive producers are Brandon Barr, Brian Lavin,
Elsie Crowley and Me at School of Humans and Connel
Burn and Charles Bryant at iHeartRadio. Our music is by
Gabby Lala and Claire Campbell, with original theme by Mark
Karen and Me. You can follow us online at Disorganized
(22:36):
Crime podcast dot com. Story do it As with Me,
Stephen Princess, the Handshake Seals, the rapt Seal Load Up.
(23:06):
These are Breads, Rolling, Dooby, Young, Rich and Groovy Making
it Up. We rolled along, Rolling Along for Country Roll,
Rolling along Far Country Roll, Rolling along Far Country Roll
School of Humans. Hilariously, Walter was a connoisseur of many, many,
many things, including shampoo. You know when you mentioned I'm like, oh,
my god, yeah, we always had fancy shampoo. But I
didn't I didn't realize this fancy shampoo. I'm talking to
(00:33):
my cousin, who I call my twin cousin, as we
share the same birthday and have many similar characteristics. When
we were kids, we bonded over our love of the
book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Bloom.
Twin Cousin's memory of my dad's fondness for expensive shampoo
reminded me that fancy shampoo was a thing in my
(00:53):
childhood home, Coconut flavored shampoo. I mean, it was like
thirty dollars a bottle. Boy, was my hair soft after that?
Oh god, that's funny. Now. My twin cousin and his
brother cousin Scientist, grew up in New York City, which
was the other side of my dad's cross country pot
smuggling business, and unlike me, my cousins as children picked
(01:17):
up signs that my dad was a unique kind of entrepreneur.
Entrepreneur definition a person who organizes and operates a business
or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in
order to do so. And although they were kids, my
New York cousins had a vague understanding that their uncle
was an entrepreneur taking on more than just financial risks.
(01:40):
I saw. There was never too much to wonder, whatever
perspective I had. I just knew God and he had money. Yeah,
the place smuggling, I'm Rainbow Valentine. This is disorganized crime.
Smuggler's daughter and grooving. Making it up. We rolled along,
(02:13):
rolling along country, roll the Great in the Golden Gag Dog,
New York State, making it up as we roll. When
(02:42):
I was growing up in the nineteen eighties, my dad
traveled frequently to New York City for work, which seemed
very glamorous to me. New York was, you know, I mean,
the world of characters in that town. It was never ending.
They're great hot dogs. You didn't realize how great a
hot dog until you came out here and ate the
(03:03):
ship that they served in Call dogs in California. My
childhood understanding of New York City was based on the
musical Annie, about a plucky singing orphan, and the Eloise
books about a sassy, almost orphan who lives in the
Plaza Hotel. So as a kid, I believe, slash hoped
my dad was in New York City schmoozing with Broadway
(03:24):
producers who would soon discover me tap dancing and opera
singing in our mill Valley house and launch my fantasy
Broadway orphan career. Now that never happened, because my dad
was in New York City schmoozing with smugglers, not Broadway producers.
The closest you got to my daydream was being the
only other person at the movies with Gene Hackman. So
(03:46):
one afternoon I go to a movie. I can't remember
what movie it is, and it's a big theater and
nobody's in it. It's like two in the afternoon, and
I go up to the balcony because it's the best
place to sort of said, and there's only one other
person sitting in the balcony, and that's a Gene hack
There's nobody else in the theater but the two of us.
(04:10):
I was curious about what dad was up to in
New York on all those business trips, and he told
me it was as much about leisure as business. It
was often on years that I would be going to
New York because that was the best place. That was
where all my outlets to sell were, and so I'd
go back there to oversee it, or to bring money
(04:33):
back sometimes, or just to go hang out. Can you
imagine driving around New York City with pounds of pot
in your trunk? I asked my dad about this, driving
around New York City with a carload of pot. It's
like this stress of driving the country roads of northern
California multiplied by a thousand, No big deal. And when
(05:01):
I'm on the country roads in California or whatever, delivering truck,
you see maybe three cars in an hour or none
or whatever. So you have relatively good control of your
ability to prevent an accident. In New York City, you
have no control to prevent an accident because they're coming
(05:24):
at you every which way but loose. You have no
control over what they're doing and what kind of drugs
they've taken, and how drunk they are and whatever, And
all you need is one little vender bender. I guess
I never thought of this then, because you just don't
think about those. You're just careful in how you drive.
(05:44):
You know, there's a certain confidence and the belief. It's
not that you're going to get could. The belief is
that you're just cool. Nothing's happening. If you think as
a paranoid, you attract paranoid energy. So when my dad
was in New York, he had few options of places
(06:06):
to stay with old childhood friends, like the cameraman or
at one of his sister's places. My dad has two
older sisters, and my New York cousins are the children
of my dad's oldest sister, another intellectual artist Lemur. Anyway,
the rumors about what your dad did for a living,
here's my cousin's scientist. Like, people ask what people do
(06:28):
for a living. It's just a normal question that people
ask me. So I would ask my mom like, I
would say, what does uncle Walter do for a living.
And she would say, oh, he's an entrepreneur. And I
was like, wow, an entrepreneur, Mom, what's an entrepreneur? And
she would say something like, oh, well, he does business,
(06:50):
he starts businesses, he does stuff like that, And I
was like, huh okay, And I didn't really you know,
So I always thought of Walter as just this guy
who is doing business here and business. There. One thing
that kind of would happen is my mom when she
(07:12):
would get drunk or a little stoned or whatever, you know,
she would start saying things about Walter, like you want
to Like she was like, you want to you want
to know something? And I'd be like, what, Walter, he's
like a drug dealer And I was like, what what
does that mean? And she goes, but he's not a
(07:33):
drug dealer, He's like one of the you know, the
higher ups. And I was like, what what does that
even mean? Now? Cousin Scientist was a difficult kid, and
once when he was ten, he was sent to our
house in northern California during summer vacation, where he got
a total culture shock. If you're the culture out in
(07:53):
northern California was so different than the East Coast. Like,
I mean, I remember your I remember your dad took
us all to some hippie camp. The main memories I
have about it everybody swam around nude and I was
(08:13):
expected to do that too, And it was the most horrifying,
embarrassing thing I ever was involved in in my entire life,
before or after. The place my cousin's referring to is
sweet Smell, a hippie family art and music camp my
family used to attend in the seventies. It was like
a psychedelic arts version of a Catskills family resort. According
(08:35):
to my mom, Sweet Smell was created by the people
who owned the sadly now elapsed Renaissance Pleasure Fair of
Northern California, an iconic historic cultural event that arguably laid
the groundwork for today's Burning Manifestival. A lake, you didn't
have to bring food. The sky set up a coffee place,
(08:59):
so in the afternoon you could go have coffee and
chea and schmooz. And then people taught dance and drumming,
and so people brought their instruments and then there was
a rough swing on the lake for all the kids.
You know, it works like a pre runner of the
Sand Party, but you know, it's just a creative place
(09:21):
to go hang out. What yeah, Oh my god. When
my mom says sand Party, she's referring to Burning Dan.
She's so cute. Now. Sweet Smell Family Camp is still
operating today. It's populated by an insular click of artists
who keep the Sweet Smells website private, along with a
(09:42):
camp which is invite only these days. My mom also
remembers the nude swimmers who horrified cousins Scientist, as do I.
At Sweet Smell, hippies would swim nude and during the
night they would belly dance, fully dressed by the way,
in fabulous costumes, and they'd pass a joint around the campfire.
This was just totally normal. Do you remember there being
hippies on the beach and the lake. Yeah, you know what,
(10:04):
the beach could been a good or you could be
topless or but you know, at dance they had a
hoofing class or tap class and you could go and
you know, you wore clothes for your classes. No, my
mom clarifies this was not a nudist camp. They were
just swimming naked at the lake, which was very common
(10:26):
for hippies to swim nude. And my mom also remembers
cousin scientist having a hard time fitting in. I remember
his diet because she wouldn't eat anything, you know, except
for hard boiled eggs and peanuts. Him and his fucking
hard boiled eggs. It was really funny and stubborn. Another
thing that was a culture shock for me. Here's cousin
(10:48):
scientist again. Was all the pot that everybody was smoking,
like I had seen a little bit of that on
the East Coast because my mom was kind of my
mom would have been more beat nikki or bohemian, you know,
as opposed to your dad, who was clearly a you know,
the hippie class. Now, cousin scientist makes a distinction between
(11:10):
his mom being a bohemian and my dad being a hippie,
which is funny because my dad is adamant he's not
a hippie, and I understand what he means because there
are many different levels of hippies, just like many different
levels of Christians, Muslims, punk rockers, what have you. So
he is a hippie to some people, right like cousins
scientists from New York City, But to my dad, who's
(11:33):
living amongst like the hippiest of the hippies and sees
them around, he is not a hippie. Hippies do not
drive BMW's. When I got back, I kind of felt like, WHOA,
I've seen some stuff that my friends never would have seen,
you know. So as a little kid come faning back,
I felt like, you know, much more worldly than the
(11:54):
other kids around because I had seen I've been to
California and seen all the hippies in their natural habitat,
you know, doing all the crazy hippie stuff that they do,
swimming around, dude smoking lots of pot. And I had
a weird upbringing, and I walked into a weirder culture,
and you know it was in the end, it was
(12:16):
a good experience to be exposed at a young age
to such a different culture, because I think everybody should
be thrown in the deep end at some point in
their life. This is hilarious to me because I felt
the same awe the first time I visited New York City,
admiring native New Yorkers like my cousins, naturally navigating subways,
(12:37):
bodega's and deli's. This is disorganized crime. We'll be right
back now. Another discovery this podcast has uncovered is learning
(12:57):
that throughout his twenty two years smuggling career, my dad
was supporting his family of origin on the East Coast
as well. Here's my twin cousin again. He would stay
with us, but he would spend a lot of money
when he was with us. Walter fixed my mom's car up,
got it all fixed up, took it to the mechanic,
(13:19):
got everything done, paid for everything. He also helped my
mom buy an apartment in the Box in the eighties,
which we lived in for many years. Generosity has always
been second nature to my dad. He gave away a
(13:41):
lot of his money to artists, friends, family, And while
there's no more extra money today and hasn't been for years,
it's nice to know that while he had it, he
shared the wealth. For me has always been important to
be able to share the wealth, sometimes a little too much.
(14:04):
It felt really good to be able to help her out.
And so I bought her in an apartment and then
had Hi Fi remodeling I mean, opened it up, blah
blah all the stuff, because I was into remodeling and building.
(14:25):
Your dad was very generous with my mom. Here's my
cousin's scientist. So and not only that, Hi Fi came
over and redid one of the bathrooms. So, as far
as I knew at the time, Hi Fi was your
dad's carpenter friend. Now, while we know Hi Fi as
my dad's trusted guy in New York City who my
(14:47):
dad left on the battlefield, cousin Scientist saw Hi Fi
as simply my dad's carpenter friend. In the eighties, my
dad visited New York a lot for business, and he
would share more than just money with his family. Hot
was as common as furniture where we're from, and Dad
(15:08):
would leave some of it for a sister's a prime
opportunity for my board teen cousin. He would give my
mom like big bags. A pot was in the multiple
ounces of weight, which is a lot when you're you know,
(15:28):
to see when you're that young. I mean. The thing is, though,
my mom really never used it, so she accumulated a
couple of these bags, but she did really accumulating accumulate
them because I was basically pilfering from them all the time,
(15:50):
and so, you know, it was a little bit over
a long period of time. But eventually my mom went
to look forward and realized that it was gone and
told Walter and Walter was like, what the hell happened?
You know, we had to sit down, oh, me, him
and my mom because he apparently was shocked that I
(16:14):
was doing this kind of behavior. And he was like,
what you do? What happened to all that pot? What'd
you do with it? And I didn't know what to say,
so and I was kind of embarrassed that I had
smoked most of it myself. So I lied and I
said I pulled it to my friends, which was totally untrue.
(16:35):
I really just spoke most of it myself. You know,
Oh my god, hilarious. It wasn't hilarious at the time.
It was the most mortifying, embarrassing thing to happen. My
dad has no memory of this memorable and significant event
to my cousin's scientist, illustrating how humans memories of the
same event are different and subjective, and reminds me of
(16:59):
the meaningful moment in my youth when my older sister
told me our parents were pot smugglers, an event she
has no memory of. The older one did that. No,
I mean it's hard to remember. I mean Pat was
you know, Pat was just sort of like a chair.
(17:23):
There was there was always a lot of it around,
and so I guess I gave it to her them.
I just don't remember. I mean, we didn't leave it out,
but it was, you know, if anybody, I just gave
it away to everybody I knew that was sort of
part of the gig. Now, twin cousin has a slightly
(17:48):
different story than his brother. He also remembers Hi Fi
as the carpenter and remembers tons of pot around their
apartment when my dad would visit. So also there was
kind of like the smell of bud of weed, like
my brother and my mother were recipients of socks full
(18:09):
of of weed, and it would walk through the house
under the doors. And I mean, I guess I vaguely
knew what it was, but not really. Yeah, I'm pretty
sure my mom blabbed it at some point early on
(18:36):
when your child of your uncle visiting my dad, Are
they fond memories? I mean, did he strike you as
over overly generous, like wonderfully generous? Was it like surprising, No,
he see, it seemed like it was coming from a
very um genuine place, you know, like like family. Yeah,
(18:58):
And I think I think he wanted he wanted things
to be good with the East Coast peeps, because you know,
there's part of the story is fleeing the East Coast
because it's so uptight, disgusting. My dad was fleeing the
oppression of city living in old East Coast traditions while
(19:22):
simultaneously seeking the center of the cultural arts and music movement,
which turned out to be Marin County in the seventies,
where the Psychedelic Pioneers migrated after the Summer of Love
kind of ruined San Francisco. According to many Psychedelic Pioneers,
New York City was and still is busy bustling, a
place of business, and its leisure comes in the forms
(19:42):
of culture and nightlife rather than nature and hiking. My
dad is a nature enthusiast. He's a high strung heb
who thrives in a relaxed country setting, so fleeing New
York and its hustle bustle for the laid back vibes
of Marine County in northern California, who was a life
saver for my dad. Now both or this podcast, my
(20:06):
dad still hadn't revealed the details of his smuggler life
to his New York family. He still forbids me from
sharing the podcast with his older sisters. It wasn't until
recently that my dad even mentioned telling cousins scientist anything
as an adults. At some point, I think your dad
(20:28):
started insinuating things, but never with any details either. Like
he would say, Oh, I've got some stories to tell you,
and I'd be like, well, like what, and he would
let you be like someday, you know, not now, and
I would be like, okay, you know, And I never
(20:49):
got a straight story out of him. Ever. Pot, like vodka, tobacco,
or beer, reflects the ethos of a subculture, peace, love,
and rock and roll. That's the ethos of the hippies,
and cannabis being the stimulent of choice fundamentally represents that ethos. Now,
(21:10):
my East Coast cousins noticed my dad's fancy shampoo and
pot because it wasn't part of their New York City subculture.
Cousin scientist was shocked by sweet smell and the naked
swimming hippies because he grew up in the Bronx, where
there's a dearth of clothing optional swimming holes. Side note,
let it be known I have always rolled my eyes
(21:32):
at naked swimming hippies and would prefer humans wear swimsuits
at public swimmers. So the question is, what's your subculture's ethos?
Right in and let me know because I love subcultures.
You can find me on the social media Rainbow Valentine, Lemur.
I'm Rainbow Valentine and this is disorganized crime. Thanks so
(21:52):
much for listening. Disorganized Crime Smuggler's Daughter is written and
(22:14):
recorded by Me Rainbow Valentine. Our producers are Gabby Watts
and Taylor Church. Executive producers are Brandon Barr, Brian Lavin,
Elsie Crowley and Me at School of Humans and Connel
Burn and Charles Bryant at iHeartRadio. Our music is by
Gabby Lala and Claire Campbell, with original theme by Mark
Karen and Me. You can follow us online at Disorganized
(22:36):
Crime podcast dot com. Story do it As with Me,
Stephen Princess, the Handshake Seals, the rapt Seal Load Up.
(23:06):
These are Breads, Rolling, Dooby, Young, Rich and Groovy Making
it Up. We rolled along, Rolling Along for Country Roll,
Rolling along Far Country Roll, Rolling along Far Country Roll
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