Sunshine Superman Page #3

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if that's what you want

to call it or me.

I do admit to being extreme and radical.

And I feel that I'm justified

in being extremely radical

if it's based on truth and principle.

I believe that truth is radical.

My time with Carl ended

at the beginning of '79.

You were either all in or,

you know, there were challenges.

At some level he was really trying

to kind of close that gap

of getting that unconditional,

forever love by his side.

The fact that Carl was around

40 years old and not married

told me that he either wasn't

interested in women

or not interested in marriage.

He was a geek, a nerd, everything

you can imagine in that scope.

I wouldn't say he was popular

with the ladies.

I know that when it came to Jeanie,

something really captured him about her.

His whole life just changed

and the focus of his life was Jeanie.

Those of us who met Carl,

anybody, would go away

with part of his goodness,

it becomes a part of you.

And whenever

anybody expresses goodness,

it travels away with that person.

Carl and I first met in April of 1979.

I was a sophomore at Pomona College.

Carl was showing his most recent film,

which was Skydive.

Afterwards, he had us get in a circle.

He said, "Everybody stand up.

Get in a circle and hold hands."

So the group of us stood up and

held hands the way he had requested.

We're thinking, "This is a bit odd.

Where is he going with this?"

And, of course, he just wanted us

to experience the position

that skydivers would be in

when they came into a star formation.

His purity

was a very attractive quality.

And everybody recognized that.

When we were all departing,

I saw another girl was talking to him

and giving him her phone number.

And I thought, well, she's very

interested. So I just let it be.

It had been fun to see Carl's movie.

It was nice to meet

and talk with a parachutist.

I wanted to pursue this somehow.

And I thought to myself, "I know Carl."

I believe that I wrote him a letter,

actually.

He ended up calling me

and telling me,

"I'll come out and get you.

It's right on the way to drop zone."

And this ended up being our first date.

Carl and I talked a lot

going out to the drop zone.

It was a long drive.

We talked about things

that we believed in.

Principles that we held to.

While we were at the drop zone

Carl said, "Let's have a foot race."

And I thought, "OK."

I think we were running

next to the airplane

as the airplane

was starting to take off.

It was just something

that came to him to do.

I guess maybe in a sense,

it was just a gauge.

A gauge of possibilities.

It had gotten late in the day

after our day at the drop zone

and it was a long drive back.

Carl had told me that

his sister had her house

right there at Lake Elsinore

and that she wasn't home.

He said it will be fine

if we just spent the night there.

So he said,

"Well, you can sleep here on the couch

and I'll go sleep in the bedroom

where I usually do."

After a couple of hours

he came in and said,

"Can I lie down here

beside you on the floor?"

Then I said, "Well, that's OK."

"That's OK."

Then he said, "Can I hold your hand?"

And so I said, "Yeah."

And so he was lying there

parallel to me

and we're holding hands

and that's the way we spent the night.

In a matter of just a few weeks,

we covered all the ground

that each of us felt was necessary

to figure out if we were sufficiently

compatible to start a life together.

It wasn't start a relationship,

live together, any of that.

It was start a life together,

get married.

You're about to get married in a week.

Yes. I'm very excited about that.

Does your fiance jump off cliffs?

Well, not yet. She would like to.

Since we met, she's made eight skydives

and she has a natural affinity

for the air.

I think she's going to be

a very fine skydiver.

She didn't seem like

the skydiver type to me.

I remember she wore this

red and yellow and blue bright clothes.

And she kind of looked like she worked

at the little hot-dog stand

where they dip the hot dogs.

This girl just does not look like

a skydiver.

More than once, people at

the drop zone pegged me as a librarian

and some as a nun.

They were trying to figure out

where I was coming from.

There's this psychologist named Jung.

And he always talked about

the marriage of opposites, right?

And if you wanted

the diametric opposite of Carl Boenish

that would be Jean Boenish.

I had that thoughtful demeanor,

and Carl did too.

We were both very analytical,

very detail oriented,

and interested in

an intelligent approach to everything.

We were two people who were

a very good coupling. A unique coupling.

We were very well fit for each other

and we loved each other very much.

And now, ladies and gentlemen,

here we are.

I am interviewing you live

from the church of the marriage

of Jean and Carl Boenish.

Jean, would you like to come here

and say a word? Quick. Hurry, hurry.

We ran out of tape. And this is...

Alright, one word. I don't know

what I've gotten myself into.

- One word is, "I do!"

- Those are two words.

When I was considering

BASE jumping,

when it was presented to me by Carl,

it was something that struck me

as pleasant as camping.

One of the most interesting and

incomprehensible love stories ever.

But they got along great.

She was sort of the brains

of the operation.

So I was marrying into

his established business

and joining him in partnership

as the team.

Fifteen seconds!

Camera goes on at five. Here you go.

Five, four, three, two, one, go!

There she goes!

Alright!

It was a wonderful thing for both of us

to begin our life

working together on a daily basis.

Beautiful. Perfect form. Man.

Hey, Carl. it went really well.

Let me tell you something, though.

It takes more than four seconds to open.

Well, at least the count of four

when you're scared.

Roger. I copy. Yeah, I'll tell you...

You had such flawless form.

You were rock steady.

Everything went mint.

You make a hard act to follow, Jeanie.

That was flawless stability.

I'm going to try to do the same thing.

Even I bend the knee.

It's pretty easy, though.

Have a good one.

Okay duke.

It's a rush, you know? I'm using

the word scared because it's not...

When you're counting the seconds,

it's not that.

It's just that you seem to count

extra fast.

It's what skydivers call a rush.

You jump off

and there's absolutely nothing

because you can't work with anything.

You're at the mercy of nothing.

You're falling.

Jean Boenish,

if I saw her in the street,

the last thing in the world

I would think

is that she would put a parachute on

and jump off a rock.

But she believed and loved him so much,

and if Carl said that you could

jump off a cliff, do this, she did it.

And she did it better than

most of the men at the time.

Well, we're kind of used

to people calling us crazy.

But at least in our opinion,

we're not crazy.

We're basically fun-loving adventurers

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