WEBVTT - A Long Strange Trip 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:15.365 School of Humans? Is this still recording? It's on? You're 0:00:15.405 --> 0:00:18.325 just going to edit all this bullshit. It's a wasted time, though, 0:00:18.365 --> 0:00:22.085 isn't it having to listen to Semire say something. I 0:00:22.165 --> 0:00:28.125 might say something amazing. I always say something amazing. I've 0:00:28.125 --> 0:00:29.925 just turned on the recorder in front of my dad 0:00:29.925 --> 0:00:32.765 at his house in northern California. This is our first 0:00:32.805 --> 0:00:36.645 recording session, and he's a little uncomfortable being recorded, and 0:00:36.725 --> 0:00:39.885 for good reason, because while my dad was an amazing 0:00:39.885 --> 0:00:42.925 father who made sure I grew up with a storybook childhood, 0:00:43.485 --> 0:00:45.845 this is the first time he is telling me about 0:00:45.885 --> 0:00:49.765 his double life, because for twenty plus years, from the 0:00:49.805 --> 0:00:52.965 late sixties to the late nineteen eighties, my dad was 0:00:53.005 --> 0:01:00.605 a pot smuggler of considerable proportions. Do you want to 0:01:00.645 --> 0:01:03.885 just tell us about what the bond of outlaws is 0:01:05.725 --> 0:01:09.285 to not talk about anything ever? Do you mean? Is 0:01:09.325 --> 0:01:12.805 that what you're speaking of? That? It's that's what we're 0:01:12.845 --> 0:01:16.325 not supposed to do is talk about it. So getting 0:01:16.365 --> 0:01:18.565 me in a whole bunch of my crazy friends to 0:01:18.645 --> 0:01:24.245 be talking about staff is a little fucking crazy. For 0:01:24.285 --> 0:01:26.605 the past year, I've been interviewing my parents and all 0:01:26.605 --> 0:01:28.885 these people in my life who I've learned we're part 0:01:28.925 --> 0:01:32.965 of the smuggling network, and hearing these stories has truly 0:01:33.045 --> 0:01:41.005 changed my life. I'm Rainbow Valentine, and this is disorganized 0:01:41.045 --> 0:01:54.645 crime smuggler's daughter, young, free and groovy making it up. 0:01:55.365 --> 0:02:23.685 We roll along country even brain making it up. So 0:02:23.725 --> 0:02:26.485 here's what I tell people about this podcast. Like most 0:02:26.565 --> 0:02:29.085 kids in the nineteen eighties, I was obsessed with Indiana 0:02:29.165 --> 0:02:31.645 Jones movies. I would dig for treasure in my backyard 0:02:31.765 --> 0:02:35.685 all the time. Well, actually, during one of my digging 0:02:35.685 --> 0:02:37.525 bouts in the mid eighties, when I was about eight 0:02:37.605 --> 0:02:40.805 or nine, there was in fact half a million dollars 0:02:41.005 --> 0:02:44.125 buried in my backyard. Well it wasn't like you'd find that. 0:02:44.485 --> 0:02:48.445 You would have discovered a big steel box which would 0:02:48.485 --> 0:02:51.085 have appeared to be a pirate treasure chest, which would 0:02:51.085 --> 0:02:55.165 have been a treasures like So, this is my dad. 0:02:55.565 --> 0:02:58.605 He's just finished telling me about one of his biggest smuggles, 0:02:58.925 --> 0:03:02.445 helping some of his old smuggling pals distribute sixty thousand 0:03:02.605 --> 0:03:07.285 pounds of Lebanese hash. He ended up smuggling four thousand pounds. 0:03:07.645 --> 0:03:10.765 Oh you know, just four thousand pounds of hash. No 0:03:10.965 --> 0:03:14.485 big deal or the equivalent of two hundred and fifty 0:03:14.565 --> 0:03:18.645 thousand dollars, which at the time was over one point 0:03:18.685 --> 0:03:22.965 three million dollars in today's money, and my dad needed 0:03:23.005 --> 0:03:25.805 to keep that money safe until the Pounds who initially 0:03:25.925 --> 0:03:28.925 smuggled the hash into the country from Lebanon could come 0:03:28.925 --> 0:03:33.005 and collect. But my dad had a problem. He didn't 0:03:33.005 --> 0:03:36.045 know where to put that much cash in my snug 0:03:36.325 --> 0:03:40.205 childhood home, so he decided to bury the money in 0:03:40.205 --> 0:03:44.765 the yard. I got a big steel box, and I 0:03:44.845 --> 0:03:46.925 put it all in this steel box, and then I 0:03:47.045 --> 0:03:50.765 went out to our gardens, which were all at that 0:03:50.925 --> 0:03:54.805 time BlackBerry bushes. The whole acreage was all BlackBerry so 0:03:54.885 --> 0:03:58.365 you couldn't really see much of anything. And I went 0:03:58.445 --> 0:04:03.085 from this bush to this bush to whatever and found 0:04:03.085 --> 0:04:06.005 the spot to bury it. And I buried the ship. Finally, 0:04:06.885 --> 0:04:09.205 a long time later, it could be six months, did 0:04:09.245 --> 0:04:12.485 I get a call saying, yo, bro, we want to 0:04:12.525 --> 0:04:15.525 come over. We're gonna come out next week and pick 0:04:15.565 --> 0:04:20.365 it up. Cool, No problem, okay, So I had to 0:04:20.405 --> 0:04:23.525 go out there and find it. However, by the time 0:04:23.605 --> 0:04:26.885 that had happened, we had already worked on our land 0:04:27.565 --> 0:04:31.725 and got rid of all of the blackberries and I 0:04:31.765 --> 0:04:36.245 mean I had hired these two guys to not only 0:04:37.525 --> 0:04:39.645 get rid of the blackberries, but to dig up the 0:04:39.725 --> 0:04:42.445 roots and sift them, sift through them with it, so 0:04:42.485 --> 0:04:45.885 we wouldn't have so it would become gardens. All my 0:04:46.445 --> 0:04:50.765 idiot landmarks were destroyed. And it have been so long 0:04:50.805 --> 0:04:54.045 since I put the fucking thing in the ground. I 0:04:54.085 --> 0:04:57.045 couldn't initially find it, and I started to freak out, 0:04:57.125 --> 0:05:00.725 and then I freaked out thinking, oh fuck, did these 0:05:00.765 --> 0:05:03.405 guys do in the garden find it and just take it? 0:05:03.605 --> 0:05:06.485 Oh my god. The yard of my childhood home was 0:05:06.605 --> 0:05:10.605 three fourths of an acre on a steep hill. It's huge, precarious, 0:05:10.605 --> 0:05:12.645 and it always took a ton of work. My mom 0:05:12.685 --> 0:05:16.925 garden constantly planting massive bamboo groves with huge shovels, not 0:05:17.005 --> 0:05:21.485 dinky hand spades. I was probably there for the frantic search, 0:05:21.565 --> 0:05:24.405 but I blocked it out because nothing stresses me out 0:05:24.445 --> 0:05:28.085 like my dad's stress, which is huge, theatrical, and like 0:05:28.125 --> 0:05:31.965 a frazzled, angry cabby in Manhattan traffic, super New Yorky. 0:05:32.685 --> 0:05:34.965 I'm sure my parents frantic search was full of blood, 0:05:35.005 --> 0:05:38.165 sweat and tears. Where the fuck is it? Oh? Crust 0:05:38.405 --> 0:05:42.125 spoiler he finds it buried now near the pear tree. 0:05:42.805 --> 0:05:47.285 But in this moment, my dad learns an important smuggling lesson. 0:05:48.085 --> 0:05:51.365 If you're going to bury treasure in the backyard, remember 0:05:51.365 --> 0:05:53.965 where the fuck you put it? Did you ever bury 0:05:54.405 --> 0:06:01.725 stuff in the yard again? No? Anyway, Hi, I'm Rainbow Valentine. 0:06:02.085 --> 0:06:04.845 So Rainbow Valentine is not my real name, although I 0:06:04.885 --> 0:06:07.885 did start calling myself Rainbow Valentine when I was five 0:06:08.405 --> 0:06:10.885 because I thought that rainbows and Valentines were the two 0:06:10.965 --> 0:06:13.525 most beautiful things in the world, so together it would 0:06:13.565 --> 0:06:17.645 be the most beautiful thing in the universe. So I've 0:06:17.645 --> 0:06:20.765 spent the last year on a midlife reckoning, as my 0:06:20.845 --> 0:06:24.685 BFF says, opening Pandora's box and learning about what my 0:06:24.765 --> 0:06:27.485 parents and most of the adults in my childhood were 0:06:27.565 --> 0:06:29.765 up to. While I endeavored to get cast as Annie 0:06:29.845 --> 0:06:33.685 or Dorothy. Now that never happened, but I have learned 0:06:33.725 --> 0:06:36.885 all about the grown ups in my life smuggling thousands 0:06:36.965 --> 0:06:40.765 of pounds of pot quilst I willingly humiliated myself by 0:06:40.765 --> 0:06:43.685 building out somewhere over the rainbow at the Senior Citizens Center. 0:06:44.725 --> 0:06:47.325 I'm using this alias of Rainbow Valentine because most of 0:06:47.325 --> 0:06:50.405 the people i'm talking to, former smugglers, that is, are 0:06:50.445 --> 0:06:54.205 not comfortable having their names revealed. My parents have finally 0:06:54.245 --> 0:06:58.685 settled on Walter and Taffy Lemur. We cycled through Kimmy Whitefish, 0:06:58.885 --> 0:07:03.205 various other ridiculous names. To be clear, I've known my 0:07:03.285 --> 0:07:06.525 dad was a pot smuggler since I was fourteen. I 0:07:06.565 --> 0:07:09.245 remember my older sister, Verdicu, who was in college at 0:07:09.245 --> 0:07:11.605 the time, sat me down one summer day and in 0:07:11.645 --> 0:07:15.765 a hushed voice, told me the family secret that our 0:07:15.845 --> 0:07:19.765 dad was a big time pot smuggler in California. Then 0:07:19.845 --> 0:07:22.205 she said to never tell anyone that I knew this information, 0:07:22.445 --> 0:07:29.685 and definitely don't mention it to our parents. Well. Being 0:07:29.685 --> 0:07:31.725 a bit of a loudmouth, I did mention it a 0:07:31.765 --> 0:07:35.685 few times, and in return received a deadly serious warning 0:07:35.725 --> 0:07:38.885 to never speak of this to anyone from my dad. 0:07:40.085 --> 0:07:42.885 Before this year. The last time I even tried to 0:07:42.925 --> 0:07:45.085 bring up the whole being a smuggler for twenty two 0:07:45.125 --> 0:07:47.045 years thing was when I came home from college in 0:07:47.045 --> 0:07:50.125 the mid nineteen nineties, more than five years after my 0:07:50.205 --> 0:07:53.205 dad was out of the smuggling business. My dad was 0:07:53.285 --> 0:07:55.205 driving me home from the airport, and I remember him 0:07:55.245 --> 0:07:58.365 slamming on the brakes, and he said, well, I'll just 0:07:58.445 --> 0:08:02.245 let him tell you what he told me. I remember 0:08:02.445 --> 0:08:08.045 very much stopping the car and to you, it is 0:08:08.245 --> 0:08:14.005 critical that you never speak of this to anyone ever, 0:08:14.525 --> 0:08:19.685 because more than anything, Bruce lips singing ships. Ah. But 0:08:19.885 --> 0:08:23.645 times they are a changing. All over California, you'll see 0:08:23.685 --> 0:08:27.685 billboards advertising pot delivery and dispensaries. There are apps where 0:08:27.685 --> 0:08:31.525 you can get pot legally dropped off right at your doorstep. Also, 0:08:31.685 --> 0:08:34.485 statutes of limitations on my dad's smuggling days have long 0:08:34.565 --> 0:08:37.445 run out, and as they age, my dad and mom 0:08:37.445 --> 0:08:39.645 are feeling a little more comfortable with the idea of 0:08:39.725 --> 0:08:46.805 sharing their secret stories. Good morning Vietnam, is Mom, there 0:08:46.805 --> 0:08:51.445 too are okay? Hi? I called my parents on their anniversary. 0:08:51.565 --> 0:08:54.285 They've been together since nineteen seventy but only married in 0:08:54.325 --> 0:08:56.685 two thousand and two. They wanted to make sure they 0:08:56.725 --> 0:09:00.165 really liked each other, and I asked them to introduce 0:09:00.205 --> 0:09:04.525 themselves and their aliases, Taffy and Walter Lemur. Hi, this 0:09:04.765 --> 0:09:09.885 is taf Lemur and my husband, Walter Lemer. Walter and 0:09:09.965 --> 0:09:13.485 I are in our seventies and I'm under my life 0:09:13.565 --> 0:09:17.205 seven days and we came from the fifties, from the 0:09:17.285 --> 0:09:22.125 sixties and stepped into the revolution of the Hippie revolution 0:09:22.285 --> 0:09:27.405 when the sixties happened, and then we never left. And 0:09:27.485 --> 0:09:29.245 can you tell us a little bit about your husband, 0:09:29.245 --> 0:09:33.405 Walter Lemur my dad if he's a connoisseur of art 0:09:33.845 --> 0:09:39.285 and decorations and food, and he likes to talk. He's 0:09:39.285 --> 0:09:43.245 a schmoozer. It's from New York. And Dad, can you 0:09:43.285 --> 0:09:48.205 introduce your wife? Hi there, Walter here. I came out 0:09:48.285 --> 0:09:52.725 from the East Coast in nineteen seventy from New York. 0:09:53.725 --> 0:09:58.005 I landed on the porch of two of the grateful 0:09:58.125 --> 0:10:03.325 Dad's roadies, and within a couple of months being in 0:10:03.485 --> 0:10:08.685 the center of that she I was introduced through them 0:10:09.005 --> 0:10:16.085 to your lovely mother, with whom I've been for forty 0:10:16.165 --> 0:10:23.365 nine years, the great and famous Kaffi Leaner. With my eccentric, Bohemian, 0:10:23.445 --> 0:10:26.965 artsy intellectual parents at the helm, I had an idyllic childhood. 0:10:28.405 --> 0:10:30.885 When I was a toddler, our family, me, my mom, 0:10:30.965 --> 0:10:33.525 my dad, and my six year old sister, Vertica, moved 0:10:33.605 --> 0:10:35.805 just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Saclito to 0:10:35.925 --> 0:10:40.445 Mill Valley, a redwood beetreed valley, nestled below Mount Tamil Pious, 0:10:41.485 --> 0:10:44.365 named for its eighteen hundred sawmill, which still stands in 0:10:44.445 --> 0:10:47.085 Old Mill Park. It was where families from all over 0:10:47.125 --> 0:10:51.005 the Bay Area summerd in the eighteen hundreds. After the 0:10:51.045 --> 0:10:54.565 Golden Gate Bridge was constructed in nineteen thirty seven, real 0:10:54.725 --> 0:10:57.605 estate boomed in Mill Valley and it hasn't stopped since. 0:10:58.525 --> 0:11:01.845 In the nineteen seventies, Mill Valley became an area associated 0:11:01.845 --> 0:11:05.005 with great wealth, with so many people making their millions 0:11:05.005 --> 0:11:09.365 in San Francisco and moving north to raise kids. Nineteen seventies, 0:11:09.405 --> 0:11:12.285 Mill Valley had a quiet, low key, home spun hippie 0:11:12.285 --> 0:11:15.885 wealth vibe. It was charming, rural, a funky town full 0:11:15.925 --> 0:11:21.045 of small businesses and young counterculture families, progressive intellectuals, rock stars, 0:11:21.405 --> 0:11:27.805 nature lovers, and old California gold Rush moneyed families. I 0:11:27.885 --> 0:11:30.045 remember singing this song about Mill Valley as a kid. 0:11:30.245 --> 0:11:32.765 It's by Rita Abrahams, a Mill Valley resident, and it 0:11:32.925 --> 0:11:36.085 perfectly illustrates the feel good hippie vibe of my childhood 0:11:36.285 --> 0:11:41.365 in Northern California. People at a Fridges spa and stop 0:11:41.365 --> 0:11:45.965 and talk with you, walk and you can be as 0:11:46.165 --> 0:12:05.845 friendly as you want to. Be talking about love. Those 0:12:05.845 --> 0:12:08.605 flutes drive on nostal drum just feels good and just 0:12:08.725 --> 0:12:13.405 feels right. Anyway, among the rolling landscapes and redwoods was 0:12:13.485 --> 0:12:16.725 my house, stucked among the trees, BlackBerry bushes and roses 0:12:16.725 --> 0:12:19.325 that adorned our driveway, which to me as a kid 0:12:19.365 --> 0:12:22.765 seemed like the longest dirt driveway in the world. Our 0:12:22.765 --> 0:12:25.885 family was close, always together, cooking and eating, hanging out 0:12:25.885 --> 0:12:28.445 in the main part of the house, which was an 0:12:28.445 --> 0:12:31.845 open kitchen, dining room, living room with giant windows and 0:12:32.085 --> 0:12:35.525 sliding glass doors to the deck, quoi pond, and massive 0:12:35.605 --> 0:12:39.005 gardens full of fruit trees, play structures, the trampoline, and 0:12:39.085 --> 0:12:43.405 more so much more I've since learned. Our house was 0:12:43.485 --> 0:12:46.885 usually full of laughter, delicious food, original art, and it 0:12:46.965 --> 0:12:50.685 was a center of social activity. My parents' friends constantly 0:12:50.725 --> 0:12:53.525 dropped by and stayed for dinner, and every weekend my 0:12:53.685 --> 0:12:58.405 friends visited for slumber parties, spending multiple nights. My friends 0:12:58.445 --> 0:13:01.125 and I would concoct stories that we would theatrically record 0:13:01.125 --> 0:13:05.325 into my cassette player, with me always taking center stage. 0:13:05.085 --> 0:13:10.365 Guys coming for Then I shall cook my specialty brain 0:13:10.605 --> 0:13:15.325 a lah noodle. What shall you cook? I shall hook 0:13:17.765 --> 0:13:23.845 my specialty rive allah I bill yuh me yum, It's 0:13:24.485 --> 0:13:27.645 so delicious. Every night, my parents would read to me 0:13:27.725 --> 0:13:30.445 in my treehouse loft bed wall papered with snow white 0:13:30.445 --> 0:13:33.365 in the Seven Dwarves. I went to an artsy, holistic 0:13:33.485 --> 0:13:36.605 progressive school where each day started with an hour of music. 0:13:47.685 --> 0:13:50.245 When I was eight, my sister thirteen. In the early eighties, 0:13:50.325 --> 0:13:52.885 our little brother was born and I became the middle child. 0:13:54.165 --> 0:13:56.925 My memories of childhood are joyful, full of abundance, both 0:13:57.005 --> 0:13:59.765 the material like playing legos at our Tahoe house, and 0:13:59.885 --> 0:14:04.765 the immaterial like community, magical, spiritual, connected to the earthedness, friends, family, 0:14:04.845 --> 0:14:16.805 and a lot of absurdities. When I look back now, 0:14:16.885 --> 0:14:19.685 I feel ridiculous for not realizing that something was going 0:14:19.765 --> 0:14:22.805 on behind the scenes in our family home. Our house 0:14:22.925 --> 0:14:25.685 was pretty different from TV houses like The Brady Bunch, 0:14:25.805 --> 0:14:28.925 my favorite show. For instance, we had a second parking 0:14:29.005 --> 0:14:32.165 lot on the property for all the extra oversized vehicles 0:14:32.245 --> 0:14:34.725 my family owned. The Brady Bunch only had that one 0:14:34.765 --> 0:14:37.965 wood paneled station wagon. Our car part had a clutch 0:14:38.045 --> 0:14:41.205 of outdoor storage closets packed with camping gear, ski gear, 0:14:41.565 --> 0:14:45.965 and dozens of hardback seventies sampsonite burnt sianta suit cases 0:14:46.005 --> 0:14:48.845 with combo locks. Okay, sure, we were a family of five, 0:14:48.925 --> 0:14:52.565 but we never seemed to use the suitcases. They were 0:14:52.645 --> 0:14:54.805 foemy inside and large enough for me to fit in, 0:14:54.885 --> 0:14:57.965 and I loved playing with them, pretending I was stowaway 0:14:58.085 --> 0:15:02.605 or hidden refugee, climbing inside and shutting the lid. Now 0:15:02.965 --> 0:15:08.125 I get it. These amazing large suitcases were for transporting weed. 0:15:09.725 --> 0:15:11.885 I also have fond memories of going to these weekly 0:15:11.965 --> 0:15:14.925 baseball games with my dad. I'd run around and play 0:15:14.965 --> 0:15:18.125 in the crisp marine air around a glossy green baseball field, 0:15:18.205 --> 0:15:21.605 enjoying myself, maybe batting a ball or two, and my 0:15:21.725 --> 0:15:23.445 dad would play with all these guys I've known my 0:15:23.485 --> 0:15:26.045 whole life, the coach Baseball Bob, the Philly Boys, the 0:15:26.125 --> 0:15:30.285 French hippie tal Joe, Peach Blossom, Loose Larry, the Vietnam Vet. 0:15:31.205 --> 0:15:34.725 And I'm now discovering that all of these people who 0:15:34.765 --> 0:15:37.325 are essentially like my surrogate ants and uncles, all of 0:15:37.485 --> 0:15:42.725 them were also smugglers or growers or somehow in the 0:15:42.805 --> 0:15:47.565 pot industry big time. And here's how oblivious I was 0:15:47.605 --> 0:15:50.085 as a kid, slash amazed I didn't realize what was 0:15:50.125 --> 0:15:53.205 going on. They're always garbage bags of pot in my 0:15:53.285 --> 0:15:56.525 dad's office. Garbage bags, you guys. But this just seemed 0:15:56.605 --> 0:15:59.205 normal to me. My parents seemed normal. I mean, they 0:15:59.245 --> 0:16:01.405 weren't straight that as, they weren't the typical nine to 0:16:01.485 --> 0:16:05.245 five suburban parents with zero interest in Tibetan Tonka's karmas 0:16:05.485 --> 0:16:08.805 aadelic poster art. But they also weren't living on a 0:16:08.925 --> 0:16:12.725 hippie bus and wearing tide like lots of my friends parents. 0:16:13.445 --> 0:16:17.525 And plus, pott was everywhere in Marin County in northern California. 0:16:18.085 --> 0:16:22.445 Everyone's family had pot around, just maybe not garbage bags full. 0:16:28.685 --> 0:16:31.405 So when my sister told me the shocking news that 0:16:31.525 --> 0:16:34.605 our parents were drug dealers when I was fourteen, I 0:16:34.805 --> 0:16:38.725 was mortified. These are the Nancy Reagan just say no, 0:16:38.885 --> 0:16:41.485 this is your brain on Drugs TV campaign years in 0:16:41.565 --> 0:16:46.285 the nineteen eighties. Drug dealers are the worst, according to 0:16:46.405 --> 0:16:48.645 TV and the rest of the world. Do I have 0:16:48.765 --> 0:16:53.405 your permission to record? Yes? Okay, awesome, Okay, So this 0:16:53.525 --> 0:16:55.685 is Petunia, one of my best friends growing up in 0:16:55.805 --> 0:16:58.245 an honorary member of our family. She knew me and 0:16:58.325 --> 0:17:02.165 my parents really well. Yeah. So my bff Petunia spent 0:17:02.245 --> 0:17:04.245 so much time, you spent so much time at our house. 0:17:04.285 --> 0:17:06.765 I wanted to get your stories of what you thought 0:17:06.845 --> 0:17:08.325 was going on in my house and if you ever 0:17:08.405 --> 0:17:10.645 had any what did you think of my house and 0:17:10.725 --> 0:17:13.645 my parents? What did you did you have any inkling 0:17:13.725 --> 0:17:16.845 of what they did for a job? And yeah, well, 0:17:17.045 --> 0:17:18.805 I mean, of course I knew that your mom was 0:17:18.965 --> 0:17:27.445 a painter and a mother, and that was very clear, transparent, 0:17:27.605 --> 0:17:30.245 obvious and made a lot of sense, you know, you 0:17:30.325 --> 0:17:34.885 could see. And with your dad, it wasn't clear what 0:17:35.165 --> 0:17:39.445 he was doing. I feel like we talked about it 0:17:39.525 --> 0:17:43.485 even as children, and and said that he was a businessman. 0:17:43.765 --> 0:17:47.085 He knew that he was a businessman, but definitely not 0:17:47.365 --> 0:17:51.405 like a nine to five, not a suit. But we 0:17:51.525 --> 0:17:54.045 knew that he made deals. I knew that he made 0:17:54.085 --> 0:17:57.045 deals because he would like this. I feel like this 0:17:57.205 --> 0:17:59.805 must have been part of his conversation. That it was like, oh, 0:17:59.885 --> 0:18:01.965 I'm working on a deal or whatever, but some kind 0:18:02.005 --> 0:18:05.125 of deal that it involved talking on the phone. And 0:18:05.525 --> 0:18:10.685 so your dad was around and doing business and and 0:18:11.085 --> 0:18:13.645 that's that's all I knew. Really, yeah, me too, And 0:18:13.725 --> 0:18:16.285 I didn't care, like that's all that was all the 0:18:16.765 --> 0:18:18.965 business man that was. It was an answer that was 0:18:18.965 --> 0:18:21.845 answer enough for me. Yeah, and I could perceive that 0:18:22.045 --> 0:18:25.685 your your family was well off. Your house was like 0:18:26.805 --> 0:18:31.925 an oasis of plenitude. Do you remember my dad being 0:18:32.045 --> 0:18:41.525 super high strung, Yeah, so stressed out. Yeah yeah, me too. 0:18:43.085 --> 0:18:46.005 Oh yeah, yeah. It's sort of interesting, but like I 0:18:46.085 --> 0:18:48.205 don't know, like a lot of other people's dads just 0:18:48.325 --> 0:18:52.845 weren't really around, so like who knows what those dads were, Like, 0:18:53.165 --> 0:18:55.725 who else's dad was around as much as your dad, 0:18:55.805 --> 0:18:58.605 Like nobody's. I love hearing Petunia talk about my dad 0:18:58.685 --> 0:19:02.365 like this, because he really was around a lot. There's 0:19:02.405 --> 0:19:05.045 something special about how my dad subverts the good old 0:19:05.125 --> 0:19:08.205 dad role. Clad in a far side T shirt, my 0:19:08.285 --> 0:19:10.685 dad would pad around in his office and his socks, 0:19:11.045 --> 0:19:14.445 yelling into the phone, stealing our Halloween candy, schooling us 0:19:14.485 --> 0:19:17.605 on opera and art history. Oh and he was also smuggling. 0:19:18.565 --> 0:19:21.005 After I found out the family secret in my teens, 0:19:21.365 --> 0:19:24.365 Petunia was the only person I confided in. Yeah, I 0:19:24.405 --> 0:19:27.485 remember you telling me in this tone of like I 0:19:27.685 --> 0:19:29.485 just found out, how can you believe it? And I 0:19:29.605 --> 0:19:34.525 was like, yeah, I can't believe it actually, Like yeah, 0:19:34.765 --> 0:19:37.925 like it was not at all surprising, but I didn't know, 0:19:38.405 --> 0:19:41.965 which is funny because I was shocked. I grew up 0:19:42.005 --> 0:19:43.685 in this world where there was it was. Pot was 0:19:43.765 --> 0:19:48.925 everywhere in my household. Yeah, it wasn't hidden, I mean 0:19:49.125 --> 0:19:53.445 it wasn't. It was just part of the furniture. Yeah, 0:19:54.325 --> 0:19:57.405 and I was totally uninterested in it. Yeah, it was boring. 0:19:58.125 --> 0:20:00.565 I thought pot was uncool. I thought it was lame. 0:20:00.805 --> 0:20:02.365 I thought it was what grown ups did. I thought 0:20:02.365 --> 0:20:05.045 it was like totally lame. And it blows my mind 0:20:05.605 --> 0:20:10.325 think that literally, at any moment, my parents could have 0:20:10.365 --> 0:20:14.605 been busted and we could have been foster children. Yeah, well, 0:20:14.685 --> 0:20:18.525 this is something that's interesting to me. So my mom 0:20:18.885 --> 0:20:23.605 is thinks of herself as a very overprotective person. So 0:20:23.805 --> 0:20:30.325 I'm curious what she knew about your dad's livelihood because 0:20:30.485 --> 0:20:33.325 I know that she did the books for your dad 0:20:33.605 --> 0:20:39.245 for a while, and I wonder what she knew because 0:20:39.365 --> 0:20:43.805 she thinks of herself as an overprotective parent. But then 0:20:44.285 --> 0:20:48.085 she was allowing me to spend vast amounts of time 0:20:48.885 --> 0:20:53.325 in this household that like, like what if your dad 0:20:53.525 --> 0:20:59.965 was busted or what if some professional enemy. I don't 0:20:59.965 --> 0:21:01.605 know how likely that this would be. I really have 0:21:01.765 --> 0:21:05.485 no idea, but like, did he know people who were dangerous? 0:21:06.125 --> 0:21:16.725 Possibly he did? Coming up, my dad loses all of 0:21:16.845 --> 0:21:19.925 his money and a smuggling trip gone wrong, which just 0:21:20.045 --> 0:21:22.885 happened to be the night I was born. I'm Rainbow 0:21:23.005 --> 0:21:25.965 Valentine and this is disorganized crime. We'll be right back. 0:21:36.605 --> 0:21:39.365 The origin of the word pot is from pataguaya, a 0:21:39.445 --> 0:21:42.005 wine or brandy that has been steeped in cannabis buds. 0:21:42.445 --> 0:21:46.805 Pataguaya is short for potassion duguaya, which means the drink 0:21:46.845 --> 0:21:50.325 of grief. It does seem this job brought its fair 0:21:50.365 --> 0:21:53.045 share of grief with it. If a deal went wrong, 0:21:53.205 --> 0:22:00.525 you could lose everything. Can Dad stop clinking around in 0:22:00.605 --> 0:22:05.205 the back, We can hear him and bail? Yeah? Yeah, 0:22:05.285 --> 0:22:09.085 Dad is not able to be quiet. Good job. Enjoy 0:22:09.125 --> 0:22:13.565 your oatmeal, dad, So mom, can you talk about how 0:22:14.365 --> 0:22:18.605 critical it was that your jobs were see a secret? 0:22:18.765 --> 0:22:21.885 Talk about the high stakes of this job. The high 0:22:21.925 --> 0:22:25.765 stakes were that we was the ego and everybody thought 0:22:25.805 --> 0:22:28.925 it was the devil. And if you got caught with 0:22:29.165 --> 0:22:32.525 even an ounce who went to jail and could lose 0:22:32.565 --> 0:22:35.845 your kids. It was super high stakes. So you could 0:22:35.965 --> 0:22:39.005 you have to be really careful about not talking about 0:22:39.125 --> 0:22:44.085 your business to any of your friends or parents of 0:22:44.245 --> 0:22:48.005 the other children, or the soccer parents. You just have 0:22:48.165 --> 0:22:51.965 to conduct your life like it was really normal, just 0:22:52.205 --> 0:22:55.125 like everybody else. Dad finished his oatmeal and chimed in. 0:22:55.485 --> 0:22:58.725 I mean, my job was to do it right and 0:22:59.565 --> 0:23:04.765 stay under the radar and be this schizophrenic living two 0:23:04.845 --> 0:23:10.405 lives basically didn't bother me. It was either do it 0:23:10.605 --> 0:23:15.685 right for begad. It was similar to war. You stick 0:23:15.765 --> 0:23:18.485 your head above the foxhole and it gets blown off. 0:23:19.085 --> 0:23:22.485 People are getting busted for less than an ounce of pot. 0:23:22.885 --> 0:23:26.965 Now that wasn't real big time staff, but when you 0:23:27.085 --> 0:23:30.965 got into what we were doing, it would cost a 0:23:31.085 --> 0:23:34.685 fortunate attorneys even if you did get off, you know. 0:23:34.805 --> 0:23:40.365 I mean, I was living sort of in two worlds. Now. 0:23:40.485 --> 0:23:43.005 Both of my parents talk about leading a double life. 0:23:43.965 --> 0:23:46.845 On one hand, the parents, I know, they're devoted, involved, 0:23:46.885 --> 0:23:50.965 adoring parents and upstanding citizens who participate, to my embarrassment 0:23:51.005 --> 0:23:54.765 in my school in life almost too enthusiastically. And on 0:23:54.845 --> 0:23:59.565 the other hand, their counterculture outlaws smuggling up to several 0:23:59.765 --> 0:24:03.205 thousands of pounds of pot across a god fearing country 0:24:03.605 --> 0:24:06.485 swarming with law enforcement and full of hippie and drug 0:24:06.565 --> 0:24:11.325 fearing Americans. My dad's career as a smuggler coincided with 0:24:11.405 --> 0:24:15.325 the inception of the War on Drugs, when the country 0:24:15.485 --> 0:24:18.885 was focused on sending drug dealers and users to prison, 0:24:19.925 --> 0:24:22.885 and more and more dangerous drugs were entering the transcontinental 0:24:22.965 --> 0:24:26.605 smuggling trade like heroin and cocaine drugs were If you 0:24:26.725 --> 0:24:29.685 got caught up in those smuggling networks, could lead to 0:24:29.805 --> 0:24:33.525 a bullet through the head. You've mentioned feeling like you 0:24:33.685 --> 0:24:36.405 led a devil life, Can you speak about that? But yeah, 0:24:36.525 --> 0:24:40.245 well then I had I had my friends, which were 0:24:40.445 --> 0:24:44.885 all my old friends. We trusted everybody from their word, 0:24:45.325 --> 0:24:49.685 and they were separate from all the people that lived 0:24:49.685 --> 0:24:53.885 in the community, you know, and the people at the stores, 0:24:54.325 --> 0:24:58.125 and even your doctor didn't know who else was going on, 0:24:58.845 --> 0:25:04.005 you know. Very stressful to lead two loves, I remember, 0:25:04.085 --> 0:25:09.245 ba Yeah, but they were just coming and going. Those 0:25:09.325 --> 0:25:13.805 were I mean, I'm talking about room full of pot 0:25:15.445 --> 0:25:20.085 where we stabshed at the garbage bags. Pot were just samples. 0:25:21.485 --> 0:25:24.685 So the garbage bag is a pot I remember from 0:25:24.725 --> 0:25:27.045 when I was a kid, were just the tip of 0:25:27.165 --> 0:25:30.805 the pot iceberg of how much pot my dad was moving. 0:25:31.565 --> 0:25:35.285 They were samples. Really, At any given point in my childhood, 0:25:35.805 --> 0:25:38.205 my dad was storing up to four or five thousand 0:25:38.605 --> 0:25:41.445 pounds of pot in our garage or the family storage 0:25:41.525 --> 0:25:55.205 unit a few miles away from our house. The true 0:25:55.325 --> 0:25:58.205 and complete story of my birth is the perfect saga 0:25:58.285 --> 0:26:01.925 to show this double life that my parents led. I 0:26:02.045 --> 0:26:04.125 was born in nineteen seventy four on a dark and 0:26:04.245 --> 0:26:07.845 stormy night in West Marin, California. We're gonna start. It 0:26:07.925 --> 0:26:11.365 was a dark and stormy night. Well, but yeah, the 0:26:11.805 --> 0:26:14.765 arm and hit. Yeah, it was just daring and raining 0:26:14.805 --> 0:26:18.085 and raining and dark and mary. Well it was dark 0:26:18.165 --> 0:26:21.325 and stormy. Yes, it was quite a storm. And that 0:26:21.525 --> 0:26:24.405 night my young parents, my dad and his twenties, my 0:26:24.485 --> 0:26:27.725 mom in her early thirties, lost their life savings in 0:26:27.805 --> 0:26:31.525 a smuggling trip gone wrong. Now, their life savings was 0:26:31.525 --> 0:26:34.645 about thirty six thousand dollars in nineteen seventy four, which 0:26:34.805 --> 0:26:37.525 is one hundred and ninety five thousand dollars today. I 0:26:37.645 --> 0:26:43.045 just figured that's what you cost. So in nineteen seventy four, 0:26:43.165 --> 0:26:46.045 my parents were living in a handmaid hippie hobbit house 0:26:46.125 --> 0:26:49.645 in West Merin, California. It had a long winding staircase 0:26:49.725 --> 0:26:53.005 up to the circular door. My very pregnant mom would 0:26:53.045 --> 0:26:55.845 tend to my sister the Japanese gardens and her herd 0:26:55.965 --> 0:26:59.645 of animals. She hated the goose. My dad was enjoying 0:26:59.805 --> 0:27:02.565