"Saturday morning at 8:00, we were married. We were at Vail on the ski slope and all of the ski school was there. You've met Charlotte? Well, she is Japanese, raised in Japan. Her father was Japanese from Hawaii. He fought for the American forces in WWII. And then, after the war, he moved to Japan and he met her mother there. She had three brothers, one is deceased, one lives in Hawaii and one lives in San Jose. Her mother still lives in Hawaii. So, she is an American citizen right from the beginning. She went to American schools in Japan. She wore her native wedding dress and I wore mine, a Scottish kilt. It's funny the way things work out sometimes. I fought the Japanese in WWII and they were the enemy. Now fifty years later, I marry a Japanese lady."
"That's when I got my nickname, by jumping out of an airplane. I flew P-38's in WWII and was practicing air spins. I took up an airplane to stall it. I stalled it by pulling the stick back, then kicked in the rudder and the airplane goes into kind of a flat spin."
"The way you're suppose to pull it out is by kicking the opposite rudder and turning it out; then pop the stick and after one turn it comes out of the spin. Well, I tried it three times and it wouldn't come out."
"So I jumped out of the plane and pulled my parachute, and my parachute wouldn't open. I waited and waited. This is an optimist: First he thinks the airplane is going to come out of the spin. Then he thinks that his parachute is going to open. It did open, obviously, but on the second pull. What happens is that you free-fall increasing in speed at a rate of 32 feet per second, until you reach 130 mph, and then when the parachute opens (Boot snaps his fingers), you stop immediately. My boots fell off. A farmer found my boots and brought them back to the air base. From then on, they called me boots."
"I skied Aspen just after WWII and had visited a couple of times, and I liked it. In fact, when I lived in Minneapolis, I had many friends, and belonged to the best clubs and fraternities and so forth, but I never felt comfortable there."
"I started skiing when I was four years old. Started teaching my friends when I was eight and professionally when I was eighteen. When I headed to Aspen, I felt like I was home. I don't know what it was, but I think it was a sense of community we had. That's when I moved to Aspen, in 1964 or something like that."
"I was a carpenter and a ski instructor. The only problem with Aspen was it didn't have the opportunity for economic advancement. You could start a bar, but I wasn't interested in starting a bar. Maybe you could be a building contractor, but I wasn't interested in that either, although I have done a little bit of building."
"I was there six years. Then I moved to Vail for a couple of years and taught skiing there. Then I moved over here (Silverthorne) while still ski instructing at Vail."
"I've worked at a number of things to make a living. I wrote three books, a couple of books on skiing. One was How to Ski Powder Nine Ways and another titled Gorden Town. I spent a lot of time learning, getting my Masters, and doing spiritual things. I've spent a number of years on self growth."
"I came across something I really thought was worthwhile and has even helped me at work. Something they call 'clearing.' I find there are all kinds of memories that affect us. For instance, a couple of years ago I had a student in my ski class who was afraid of anything steeper than this floor. And he skied for six years. Anything steeper and he would go into this wedge. He knew how to ski, but he was just frightened of height. I tried all the conventional ski stuff and nothing worked. So I said, I have this system that might help you. So, come tomorrow morning and I'll see if it works."
"So the next morning he came and I use this system on him. In seven minutes I find out that his brother had pushed him off the breakfront into the ocean, in Australia, where he is from. When he was three years old he fell off this cliff and almost drowned. I found out by tapping into his unconscious what the problem was. So, in only seven minutes after finding the trouble and clearing him of it, we go out on the ski hill in a private lesson. His skis are right together. We went into the back bowls of Vail which are black runs. He didn't need me anymore because he knew he was cleared of his problem. That was really fun for me to see."
"I especially enjoy teaching the kids. I taught about a year and a half at the public schools. Another fellow and I, a principal, started our own private school here. This was a high school to turn the students on to education. Our program was quite successful. It was called the Academy at the Summit, but the kids called it 'Boot High' or 'B High.' We really liked each other and we had a lot of fun. It was just a little, simple school. We had about twelve kids in the class. They all went back to school and they all graduated. One was going to quit school and hated it. He went back and got straight A's. Then he went to college and still got straight A's."
Boot takes a few minutes to talk to one of the people staying in his home. The person rents one of his seven bedrooms and the young lady hands Boot some cash.
"Renting out rooms enables me to dream a little bit. For instance, this house is a symbol of my life's dream, which evolved from awareness. I was a public school teacher in Minneapolis, and had taken a class of eighth graders on a field trip to a public library and to visit its planetarium. Eighth grade students are all nerves and twitching, and all this fiddling around just like nerve ends. The librarian pushed this button and lowered a parachute over the auditorium. It was the screen for the planetarium to project onto. So immediately, they become relaxed. I thought, what's going on here? What's causing this immediate change in energy? There wasn't much else around of interest. So then I realized curved surfaces are more pleasing to most of us. And I made this amazing discovery, that the first nine months of our lives are not in a box. Then for thousands of years we lived in caves. So we can feel more comfortable by living in rooms with curved surfaces."
"One of the problems I've noticed is that architects are left-brained and, therefore, they are interested in things instead of people. They are mathematicians and engineers rather than artists or humanists. They design dwellings with straight walls and ceilings. The cities of today are not very beautiful. To me, they are monuments to the architect, but they don't have the feeling and comfort that most buildings could have."
"I've had this idea for a place where people reach their potential for something like forty years, since 1948. I'm still interested in trying out the concepts. I believe beauty is important. I certainly have an affinity for the mountains."
"I designed it, built it, and did everything. I didn't hire a contractor. I did all of it except for the plumbing. I buried part of the house and everything is free form. I did all the sculpturing. I'm just trying to show what can be done."
"Everyone likes this house, but it's not for everyone. It's great when the kids come over. Children really like this house. They run around and really have fun. That gives me pleasure. I kind of get vicarious enjoyment. Even my renters love it. They want to buy it. It's a very beautiful setting here. It's on the river and there is a lake. I really feel a sense of accomplishment building this place."
"But you know what, I'd move tomorrow. You see, if someone asked which would you like to do: go to the moon or build Gorden town, there would be no question about what I would do. It would be far better to build the town. No question about it. I can see what would happen, how successful it would be and how thrilling the change that would take place. So, I think I've jumped off enough cliffs with my skis."