View UYD Letters
24:21 – Jah shows Seth an envelope that is dated from the summer of 1988 and does not have a return address. It is being sent to The Larroquettes in Malibu from 11-year-old Jonathan at camp. Jah takes a piece of paper out of the envelope dated July 18th. He doesn’t know if they’re that good, but he reads the letter: To the Larroquette Family, Sorry so messy. Dear Mom & Dad, My first day was scary but fun. Mr. Hartman is funny in a strange way. Right now it’s 5:30 a.m. I didn’t get any sleep because I missed you so much, but I’ll get used to it. I’ve made 4 friends: Jeff, Mike, Matt and Greg. Don’t send more than one postcard or I’ll have to perform in front of everybody. Or don’t send a care gift. My group is all stupid 8- and 9-year-olds so I’m asking them to shift me to the group with my friends. I miss and love you both so much. And Lisa and Ben.
27:01 – Jonathan reads the next one from a couple days later: Dear Mom & Dad, I’m very comfortable. I’ve made 4 very good friends. Dad, please send them autographs – Jeff, Greg, Mike and Matt. I miss you so much. Send as many postcards as you want. Greg is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I’m having a lot of fun tonight. We are having a dance. And kiss Ben, Lisa, Max and you. I love you, JPL
28:10 – Jonathan goes on to the third letter, where he has altered his family’s last name: THE LAROCETS. Dear Mom & Dad, I’ve met someone very special. His name is Greg. (No, I’m not a fag.) Seth: “Are you fucking kidding me?” Jah is laughing too much and Seth has to take over: He’s my best friend. I’m homesick but I’m still having lots of fun. I miss Ben so much. How is Max doing? (Jah explains Max was the family rottweiler) I want to come home but I don’t want to leave here (just mixed feelings) I love and miss you so so so much. Your son in solitary confinement in Chino, JPL. Seth thinks this was the very first original Craig’s House ever written
2:36 – Jah references his letters from camp.
15:58 – Jonathan reads from a letter that he wrote to longtime friend of the show George, dated Sept. 10, 1995. At this point in his life he was 10 days from turning 22 years old. It reads: I had a great summer. Did a shitload of drugs. I have some great stories. I just went to two Horde shows. Drank like crazy. Worked here and there. Drove out here to L.A. Me, Josh, Brian. We had the best time. We took 10 days, drove 4,000 miles. We had mad weed. We smoked all day, every day. Tripped on mushrooms at the White House and Graceland. Saw the Grand Canyon, camped out in Santa Fe. Wild times. Well, I’m in L.A. Things are looking good. I’m psyched to hear from you. – Seth Jah says this must have been the Gillette of summer road trips – the best a man can get (Episode 115, 4:02). Jah looked up the HORDE shows, which were freeform rock festivals that took place every few years. It stood for Horizons Of Rock Developing Everywhere, and it was started by John Popper of Blues Traveler. The shows Seth went to were Wednesday, Aug. 10, 1995 at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and Friday, Aug. 12, 1995 at Greatwoods in Mansfield, Mass. He got to see Joan Osborne, G. Love and Special Sauce, Ziggy Marley, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Blues Traveler, Godstreet Wine and The Black Crowes.
56:50 – Seth says it was an easier time back during the HORDE shows
3:33 – Jah’s mom handed him some stuff today. There must be a secret box she’s kept of crazy shit that J-dawg did. Thie one says on the top in pseudo-tag writing: DESIRE DESTINATIONS – 1) Galapagos Islands, 2) Ethiopia (both spelled incorrectly), 3) Big Bear, Snow Summit, Lake Tahoe, 4) Oregon, 5) Sedona – to go camping, 6) Oakland Dead shows for Chinese New Year, and 7) Camping in Zion National Park
43:20 – Jah reiterates that his mom gave him some shit. The two biggest things she gave him that he didn’t really know existed were a couple letters he wrote to high schools that he didn’t get in to. One of them was called Thatcher, a fancy boarding school in Ojai with a good lacrosse team. He was asked to answer a few questions and choose some essays. Q: What are your hobbies and interests? A: My hobbies are playing guitar, archery, playing paintball wars and collecting baseball cards. Interests I have are in acting, music and many sports. My favorite is football because it pushes me to my physical limit. Q: In what sports do you actively participate? A: Archery. (Jah says his dad confirmed that Jah had a target up in the backyard). Q: Have you ever held a job of any sort? If so, please provide details. A: I have been in a commercial and I appeared in Saturday Night Live, a television show (Episode 067, 19:53). Jah then reads a portion of his essay: “I was actually excited when my mother told me I was going to this camp – a survival school, actually – but my excitement soon changed abruptly. The previous year had not been as successful as I would have liked and I had been unappreciative of what I had. That summer what I really wanted to do was nothing but go to the beach and bum around. Luckily, my parents wouldn’t allow that. On the plane to camp I met a young man named P.J. who was also going to this camp. He was just as worried as I was. Neither of us had been away from home for a month. The day that we got there we were immediately thrown into a strange world about which we knew nothing. Imagine being stripped of everything you own and everything you take for granted, like showers, decent food, clean clothes, television, telephones, even electricity, and being left to your own resources. We hiked for miles and chopped wood and prepared for a five-day survival hike in which he had to find our own food or get sick from hunger. At the time I was miserable and I could not wait to get home. Now that I look back on it though, I am grateful my parents let me go, because I came home stronger, with more confidence and an appreciation for my good fortune. I do not want to go back, but perhaps if I forget my lessons there, I will need to return to the wilderness to find them.”
16:44 – Jah’s mother has kept some stuff under lock and key without him knowing. He applied to some high schools in 1991. Both applications she kept were for high schools he did not gain entrance into. One of them was Crossroads in Santa Monica and another was for a boarding school in Ojai called Thatcher. There were some embellishments he took in depicting himself as a student: “Some of my hobbies are baseball card-collecting and cartooning. I also enjoy many number of sports, such as football, paintball wars, volleyball, basketball and tennis. I won a sports letter for playing all sports available at my school in the fifth and sixth grade. I will probably win a similar award this year.” … “I recently read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Malcolm X by John Rummell and Call of the Wild by Jack London. I am presently reading So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams.” Jah vouches for the fact that he read Of Mice and Men in its entirety and cried his eyes out, but there’s no way he actually read Malcolm X – although he did thing he looked cool walking around with it in his hand.
55:14 – Jah begins to read from another document handed to him by his mother hours before the show: “It was a Saturday morning in June. I woke up scared out of my mind. That’s right, I was going to summer camp. I knew absolutely nobody but they all seemed to know each other. I was on a Greyhound bus with a bunch of strangers. The only way anyone found out I existed was that they noticed I was with John Larroquette – ‘the pervert dude on Night Court,’ as they put it. They started to ask a lot of questions to get to know me better, I thought, but then I noticed that the questions they were asking were not about me but about my father. I thought about my situation and decided not to express my feelings to anyone because it hurt to think that the only way I could get along with people was to talk about my father. However, there was one exception – a boy named Greg. He was interested in Jonathan Larroquette, the person. I loved him because of that and I treated him like an older brother. I always listened to anything he had to say, even if what he had to say was not particularly interesting. He assured me that I was to be myself for a change and Greg brought me out of the shadow I had been trapped in for so long. I did not blame my father for his career. At the time I just needed someone to tell me that I was cool and Greg gave that to me. And for that I owe him my life because I do not know where I would be today if I had stayed in my father’s shadow.” Jah reminds us that we’ve heard about Greg before in letters from camp he read (Episode 151, 24:21).
8:51 – Seth has Jah read an anonymous letter that his parents received from a neighbor in 1993.