Barbara Hinrichs, 1998.

Between the end of my previous life story and now, I think my life has been the same. I am still an "On the Go" person; this is what my mother always called me. I never sit still.

After retiring in 1985 from the Federal Government, I worked at the Denver Ear Institute for 15 months and then at the Denver Center of Deafness (COD) for 11 years. I retired for the second time on February 3, 1998. I was 69 1/2 years old at the time. For a while, I felt bad for not working anymore, but I am okay now. I worked approximately 50 years altogether, including 37 years with the Federal Civil Service and 3 summer jobs starting when I was 16 years old. I really enjoyed working!

While I was with the COD, I was the chairwoman of Deaf Access with the Denver Commission for People with Disabilities for about five years.

On December 6, 1992, I was one of three "handicapped ladies," who were invited to Hillary Clinton's and Tipper Gore's $1,000 plate campaign luncheon. We "handicapped ladies" paid $25.00 a plate. The "handicapped" women included a deaf (that was me) woman, a blind woman, and a wheelchair-bound paralized woman. The luncheon was called "Million Dollar Day." That was before William Clinton was the President of the United States.

Over the years, Rea and I have been to several national bowling tournaments and several national campventions. We went to a Senior Citizen Convention in Phoenix. I went to the NAD Conventions in Denver and San Antonio. Rea is not interested in that kind of convention. He is a very strong outdoorsman.

I was thrilled that we went to the National Bowling Convention of the Deaf in Baltimore in 1992, because I wanted Rea to see where I grew up. Rea had never been east of Ohio before. We visited many of my favorite places while growing up. Baltimore has changed since 1946. I went to William S. Baer School for Handicapped reunion two years before. It was wonderful to see my old class/schoolmates. The deaf program in that school was closed many years ago.

The Silent Athletic Club of the Deaf (SAC) bought a building again in March, 1996. It is in Aurora, a suburb of Denver. There are about 130 members and about 15 original members. I am the second oldest woman member. The club opens every Saturday night except during the holidays. On the third Saturday of every month from October to May, except in December, there is a mini-bowling tournament. Rea has been a member of the SAC for 50 years and I have been a member of the SAC for 49 years. When we were younger, we were very active helping SAC in our first-owned building. Rea was a basketball player on the SAC team until he was 32, and a softball player until he was 39. We were both officers for many years. We are retired from our duties with SAC now. Of course, we still help on the committees every once in a while. We still go to there for meetings and socials.

Every once in a while I volunteer to help the Colorado Association of the Deaf.

I have been a member of the Colorado Historical Society for five years. One of my good friends, who is also a member, and I go to the Colorado Historical Society twice a month to listen to lectures about the West; we have interpreters for these lectures. History in Colorado is very interesting to me.

Rea and I still live in the same house in Denver, Colorado, which is about ten blocks from the University of Denver. I have lived in my house for 47 1/2 years, and it has many treasures. I am working on putting things in order, getting rid of things that we don't need anymore.

We are planning to have the whole attic with two rooms remodeled for my workshop. It will be filled with books and bookshelves, worktables for picture cropping, cutting and taping of clippings and articles, and quilling, etc. I have two chaise lounges for reading. The second bedroom on the first floor is a den for my computer. We seldom have company because we live in the Mid-west. But whenever any company visit us, they will sleep on an excellent sofabed!

I have several hobbies and projects that keep me very busy at home. One of them is the collection of newspaper clippings and magazine articles all about the deaf. By this coming November, I will have collected clippings and articles for 51 years. Now I have about 37 scrapbooks. The collection also includes scrapbooks of Notable Deaf Persons, the Gallaudet Protest, Early History of the Deaf, Marlee Matlin, Heather Whitestone, and Kenneth Walker. I have a box of five years of newspaper clippings from England. I still appreciate the fact that many of my friends send me clippings and articles from out-of-state papers. I am very slow on cutting and taping the clippings and articles because I am always so busy. At the time I was working, I had too many hobbies. Right now I am taping the clippings and articles from the year 1994. I have many boxes of clippings and articles from 1994 to the present. I am trying hard to catch up.

My other hobbies are picture scrapbooks, family genealogy, quilling (paper scrolling), a collection of old postcards of Santa Clause, and old historical U.S.A. flags. I have a separate scrapbook of old and current stories and pictures of U.S.A. flags. It is very interesting to know the history of our flags. Everyone should know about them.

Reading is still my weakness. My friends always tease me because I am never without a book wherever I go. My purse is always heavy with a book.

I have lunch with different friends of mine every once in a while. Rea and I go to two card playing clubs every month. I also go to a "Birthday Club" party every month. The club is about 48 years old and I have been a member for 45 years. Each month we go to a different member's home to play games and to chat.

I used to collect owls and have now put them away in boxes. Now I have a collection of about 500 Santa Clause or St. Nicholas figurines - all different sizes and ornaments. No two are alike. I enjoy looking at them. If I have one that is the same as one I already have, I always give it to Laura or Rae Ann. Laura has the same collection, too, plus a collection of snowmen and village houses (which I don't).

I like to go to festivals, antique fairs, and craft fairs.

I still type many "My Memoirs" stories, short or long, about my life, my experiences, Rea, my daughters, my parents, grandparents, and so on. They are for my two daughters to read, because they need to know what our family was like. I still write short notes whenever a memory comes to me for writing in "My Memoirs."

I have a white mixed-bichon dog named Shamus. He is a very friendly dog. He loves to say "hi" to everyone. I walk him three times a day. Sometimes Rea helps walking Shamus. He is four years old and has lived with us for three years. Shamus is from the dog pound. We enjoy having him with us. I have always had a pet, since I lived in Germany.

In my previous life story, I forgot to add that I had a German boxer in Germany. We brought him to the U.S.A. from Germany and he was at Camp Kilmer, NJ, for a six-month quarantine. After six months, he was put in a wooden crate on a train bound for Salt Lake City. The conductor said that Mack, my dog, chewed the wood of the crate trying to get out. But just in time he caught Mack from running away and tied him with a rope. When he arrived in Salt Lake City, Mack heard my mother's voice and was very happy to see her. Mack was very exhausted from his ordeal.

Rea paints homes and rooms for people, part time. He also bowls for two senior citizen leagues every week except in summers. Rea was the Champion of Senior Citizen Bowling in the 1996 National Deaf Bowling Tournament in Denver.

We go camping in the mountains on weekends. Rea likes to fish very much. He has a new outdoor sport to add to his outdoor hobbies: ice fishing. He still goes deer/elk hunting every year, and also goes snowmobiling. I go snowmobiling with him when there is any Deaf woman snowmobiler along. I sold my snowmobile, but Rea has two snowmobiles. Rea is still the president of the Rocky Mountain Snowmobiling Club of the Deaf. Before we were snowmobilers, we skied. The reason we gave up skiing was because of too many skiers waiting in line for their turns to ride the chair lift. I would say we skied three times down the slopes each day. The tickets were very expensive.

We plan to go to the National Campvention for the Deaf in Minnesota next year. And my two friends and I will go to the National Senior Citizen Convention of the Deaf in Minnesota in two years.

We babysit with three of our five grandsons once in a while. Rea has five more grandchildren from his first marriage who live in California.

We have two daughters, Laura Metcalf, 48, and Rae Ann Flageolle, 34. Laura is the Director of the Interpreter Training Program for the Deaf at San Antonio College and Chairlady of the Texas State Board of Interpreters. She has two sons, Chad, 21, and Nicholas, 18. Chad won a scholarship to college, and is a junior at the University of Denver. Nick is a senior in high school. Laura's husband, Steve, is a representative for Honeywell Company. Before he changed jobs 15 years ago, he was a special education teacher for retarded students in Golden, CO, for five years. Steve likes to communicate with deaf people using ASL and gestures. Rae Ann is the Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Denver. DU is about ten blocks from where we live, and we see her a lot. She has three sons, ages 5-9. Rae Ann signs very well and interprets for us a lot, as well as for other deaf friends. She wants to be a certified interpreter like Laura, but Front Range Community College does not have night classes for interpreting; they have classes during the day. Her husband, Jerry, is a truck driver with a 100-foot trailer, and he drives to Wyoming and Utah. He is pretty good in signing with us.

The advice I can give to young Deaf people is to finish your schooling. You have to have a goal for yourself, whether it is to go to college or to a business school. Always think positively!

Gail Hyde
Project Coordinator, Web Design