SENIOR SAYS: Results elusive without setting goals

Lucille Hintzman loves to talk, and boy, is she good at doing it. A member of Landmark Commons in Waterloo, the 80-year-old Friendship Village resident always has a story to tell.

Born the oldest of 11 children, Lucille was raised by her mother and father. Her family moved around a great deal throughout her childhood, residing in countless places, ranging from a two car garage to a basement in the side of a hill to a simple house on Cherry Street.

From an early age, Lucille knew what it was like to experience poverty, and she understood the importance of undertaking responsibility.

“We moved four times in one town during my schooling days, and by the time I was 16 I had done a lot of different things to earn money. From that time on, I was entirely responsible for my own finances, and that’s really when I started making my own clothes,” Lucille said.

Despite difficulties at home, Lucille was a good student. A member of the National Honor Society, she was an avid vocalist and partook in the choir and glee club at her high school. She was even given the opportunity to sing under the instruction of renowned Luther conductor, Weston Noble.

After graduating high school in 1955, Lucille was offered scholarships to go to University of Madison for voice, but she instead chose to go to University of Platteville. There she studied elementary education for three years and earned her diploma.

A little more than a week after graduating from Platteville, Lucille was married to a man by the name of Earl Hintzman. The two had starting dating a few years before, after meeting at a mutual friend’s surprise party.

Lucille described their dating relationship as one that didn’t really include much dating. “Mostly, he just took me to church on Sundays,” she said with a laugh, “but that was OK. You need to choose your boyfriends carefully. You can meet a guy that tells you he loves you every 10 minutes, but it’s how he acts and how he respects you that is so important.”

In the early years of their marriage, the two moved back and forth between Fenamore and Montfort, Wisc., Lucille teaching in various schools and Earl working as an engineer. Later, in January of 1973, Earl was offered a job with John Deere and they moved to Waterloo.

Lucille and Earl raised their two children in a small house on Alemeda Street in Waterloo. Lucille was a stay at home mom, but after her boys went to school she began teaching for Hawkeye, working at both River Hills and Friendship Village.

Looking back at her life, Lucille described how blessed she’s been. “I see over and over and over how God has been present in my life. My faith has been my strength. And we don’t have time to talk about all of the people that were placed in my life. So many blessings that I never would have thought. Wonderful experiences. Wonderful privileges. I look back at how naive I was, and I just realize that there were always people there to pick up the pieces and help me.”

Ultimately her life has taught her not to give up and to keep looking toward the future.

“I say set goals. Set several goals. Set some goals for tomorrow. If you don’t have a short term goal, like for today or tomorrow, you won’t get anything done. You’ll never get any place, so set an achievable goal for today or tomorrow or maybe next week. Then set some higher goals, for long term. Set some goals that you might not ever reach because it’ll stretch you. And something else, I think choose your friends because the people that you run with, that will establish your reputation. That will establish what you make of yourself.”

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.