Lynn Hinson:
CLASS OF 1963
Terry Parker High SchoolClass of 1963
Jacksonville, FL
University of Florida - LawClass of 1973
Gainesville, FL
University of Florida - PsychologyClass of 1967
Gainesville, FL
Lynn's Story
I'm now closer to 68 (birthday is in Feb. next year), and am still married to Evelyn Reno (class of 1965). Evelyn was 19, and I had just turned 22 when we got married. We were married the last trimester I was in undergraduate school at the University of Florida - 1967. I cannot believe that we have been married almost 44 years. I remember thinking that just being 40 was incredibly old!
Even after more 43 years, Evelyn is still my best friend. I love to see her when I wake up in the morning, and when I come home after long days in the office. She's the the best thing in my life.
After being married only 3 months, I joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Following 4 years in the Air Force, I returned from Okinawa, where I was stationed for 2 years, to law school at the University of Florida. We had been married 4 years and had two young boys when I started law school.
I went through law school in 9 straight quarters, because I needed to get a job to support our family! They liked to eat. I graduated from law school in 1973.
When I graduated from law school, we had 2 young boys, a grand total of $500.00 and an old beat up VW. I spent part of the $500.00 to buy a sorry looking suit so I would have something to wear to court.
Upon graduation, we moved to Orlando and have lived here ever since. I've been practicing law in Orlando for moer than 37 years. This surely cannot be true.
Evelyn worked as a cardiac intensive care nurse at Florida Hospital until Samantha, our daughter, was born. Evelyn then took some time off to help raise Samantha. Samantha is now almost 30 years old!
We have 3 children, Jamie (who now calls himself James), Chad and Samantha. Jamie (oops, I mean James) was born in 1969 while I was stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas. He is now 42 years old! How can we have a child who is 42 years old? Good grief!
"James" works at Disney in the computer division and is married to a wonderful girl from Canada. They have a boy and a girl (our first and third grandchildren).
Our second son, Chad, was born in 1971 at Camp Kue Hospital while I was stationed on Okinawa. Despite my best efforts to talk him out of it, Chad is now in law school. Chad and his wife, Robin, have one son (our second grandchild) who came to our house when he was 13 days old to make it through Hurricane Charley. Carter is one of the increasing number of children afflicted with autism. It's a terrible disorder, but he's still a gift from God. Not only that, but he's often happier than we are because he doesn't worry about anything. Recently, Chad and his wife, Robin, adopted twin girls very shortly after they were born. Quite a group, to be sure.
Our daughter, Samantha (who is our youngest child), was born in Orlando. She graduated with high honors from Emory University several years ago. While attending Emory University in Atlanta, Samantha began working with autistic children and fell in love with it. She returned to graduate school at the University of Florida (Go Gators!!) a couple of years ago, and graduated with a masters degree in speech pathology. She works full time as a speech pathologist in the Seminole County school system. The children she works with all or substantially all have developmental disabilities, including autism. Samantha now has a little boy, Kellen, who just turned two.
This is the first time since Samantha was in the first grade that we are not paying tuition. Of course, we are helping two of our kids with expenses they have..
Samantha's dream, which I am sure she will achieve, is to open a clinic offering a full range of intervention services to children with severe speech impediments and to children with autism. I'm also sure that her two year old will be the next Tim Tebow.
This gives us SIX grandchildren Good grief!! Everybody I know says that grandchildren are great, and indeed they are. Six are even better.
Who would have ever dreamed we would have 3 children and 6 grandchildren? Someone recently told me that if you have 6 grandchildren you're old. I told them that 80 is the new 40!
We are very blessed, because our children and grandchildren all live in Orlando.
We also have a great dog named Bear. The first time I took Bear to see the vet, he said, "what is THAT??" I told him I thought he'd know what Bear is. In fact, Bear is what some would call a "mutt." I don't mention that around Bear! Some days, I like Bear a lot more than some of my law partners. Some days, I'm sure Evelyn likes Bear better than me!
I am still with the same downtown Orlando law firm that nine of us started 30 (good grief!!) years ago. We now have almost 50 lawyers in 3 offices in 3 different cities. The practice of law has been very good to us.
In 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, I was selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America. I have also been selected by Florida Trend Magazine as one of Florida's Legal "Elite" (a term which I intensely dislike) each of the past several years. If it was up to me, I would rename the Legal Elite to "Florida's Really Good Lawyers". This is a group that represents less than 2% of all lawyers practicing in the State of Florida. The lawyers who are included are picked by their peers.
In 2008, 2009 and 2010, I was selected as one of Florida's "Super Lawyers." Believe it or not, there actually is such a group. The first thing I asked was whether I would get a cape with an "S" on it. I was disappointed to learn that I wouldn't.
For the last few years, I have also been selected as one of the "Best of the Bar"(not a neighborhood bar) by the Orlando Business Journal, and as one of Orlando's "Best Lawyers" by Orlando Magazine. My picture has appeared in Orlando Magazine several times. The only problem is that I looked old!! No doubt(??) it was the fault of the photographer.
I was selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of the Best Lawyers in America in two different areas of practice: commercial litigation and creditors rights and bankruptcy I was selected once again for inclusion in the 2010 "Best Lawyers in America." That time, I' was selected in 3 different fields of law: "Bet the Company Litigation," "Commerical Litigation," and "Creditors Rights and Bankruptcy." In 2011, I was selected in 4 different filed of law: "Bet the Company Litigation," "Commercial Litigation," "Creditors Rights and Bankruptcy," and "Bankruptcy Litigation." This year, I was selected for inclusiion in 5 diffent fields.
In 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, I was selected as a "Florida Super Lawyer." Still no cape!!
It must be time to retire before I am selected for inclu...Expand for more
sion in "Worst Lawyers in America." I might note that the reason one "practices" law is that they never get it right. I should go out on top, but don't know what else I'd do.
I love country music! My favorite lyric right now (and will be for a long time) is, "It's not the breath you take. It's the moments take your breath away." I also love "The Dence." How true!
I like riding my bike, working out and swimming, even though most of the people that work out at the same gym I do (L.A. Fitness) are young enough to be younger than our kids. :-(
I have achieved much more than I would have ever dared to dream. Never would I have imagined scaling the highest peaks in the practice of law. Funny how things turn out sometimes.
Success means different things to different people. It is far more important to me that we have a very close family that truly loves and cares deeply about one another.
About 6 years ago, I had 2 brain surgeries in one week. I'm fond of saying I'm living proof that you can practice law with 2/3 of a brain. Our doctor clients nearly die laughing when I point this out to them.
We have been extremely blessed, and life has been incredibly good to us. God bless you all.
If I could see only one teacher again, it would be Coach Thoman. He was my track coach, surrogate father and driver's ed teacher. I still remember when he'd instruct us (quite often) to drive down Ft. Caroline Road to "see if the trout are in." I fondly remember him as "Safety Jake."
I remember with great joy that during our junior year, Coach Thoman coached our track team to an undefeated season! We won every dual meet, won every triangular meet, won the Gateway Conference championship and tied (with Winter Park High School) for the state championship.
We live right across the street from a prep school. When there are track meets, I still get butterflies in the pit of my stomach when I hear the loud speaker announcement, "First call for the boys' 400 meter dash." Some things never change!!
I also fondly remember Mr. Fowler, who was truly a teacher's teacher. I remember well the day he turned off the intercom in the classroom when the pep rally was broadcast due to rain. He would not allow anyone, including cheerleaders, to interrupt his teaching.
Sometimes it seems like another lifetime that we wandered the hallways at dear old TP and tried to avoid the wrath of P.O. McCoy and his two paddles. If you really got in trouble, you got wacked with the one with the holes drilled in it. This, of course, is because it would travel faster due to the fact that there was less air resistance. I got wacked a few times and often got kicked in the butt by Coach Thoman.
In fact, it seems that it was not so long ago that we were doing the kinds of things that teens do. I remember driving 110 miles per hour down Ft. Caroline Road one night. How I lived through that without killing myself or someone else, I have no idea. God must take care of fools such as I was.
I remember with glee the numerous times that Jim Vinson and I drove to school in his MG. Every morning, we drove through a grave yard on the way to school. Those were the days! It's much better to drive through a grave yard than to be in one!!
Evelyn and I are healthy, very blessed and have been married for almost 44 years now. We must be getting a "little" older. I know that because my wife asks for the "senior discount" every time we eat out!! I would rather pay full price and not ask for the discount.
IAs I said, love country music. One of my favorite songs that was popular a while back is "God Is Great, Beer is Good, People Are Crazy." I especially like the lyric, "His kids were mad as hell, but me, I'm doing well." As for really old country songs, I like "Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine," "One the Road Again," "Country Bumpkin," and "Willie, Waylon and the Boys."
I also like the song, "The Dance." The lyrics say much about life. I especially like the verse, "Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I would have missed the dance."
I was recently listening to some of the songs that were popular when we were at TP. Examples are: "Put Your Head On My shoulder," "It's All In the Game," "Party Doll," "I Ran All the Way Home," "Calendar Girl," "Sixteen Candles," "Mr. Blue," "A White Sport Coach and a Pink Carnation," and "Sea Cruise."Old memories! I did not listen to "Teen Angel" - too sad.
I can still sing the TP fight song: "With a P, with a P, with a PAR, with a PAR, with a KER, GO Parker (or something similar thereto), fight 'em, fight'em, fight 'em until we die.
Gator football and fishing are my favorite ways to spend time. About two years ago, I caught a 110 pound Tarpon.
I like to wade fish in the Mosquito Lagoon. It's well named because of the hordes of mosquitos. There are also lots of BIG gators in the Lagoon. I have pictures of some that are close to 10 feet long.
As for Gator football, it is a sad day when you can't take booze into the stadium anymore! "The times they are a changin'." The times may be a changin', but we're not." On the other hand, we're getting old.
On the morning of July 4th (2011), I rode my bike to the Orlando Courthouse just to see the hoopla at the Casey Anthony trial. Of course, I was in shorts and a tee shirt. This young lady asks me what I was doing there, and I explained to her that I had been practicing law in Orlando for 37 years and was interested in what could only be characterized as a Greek tragedy.
The next thing I know, this make up artist began to pat the perspiration off of my foreheard (3 or 4 times) and combed my hair about the same number of times
Then Jane Velez Mitchell interviewed me on live HLN nationwide TV. It was fun after she introduced me as a lawyer who had practiced law in Orlando for almost 4 decades. :-(
I'm still waiting for my TV contract. I am certain it is in the mail!
As a very good friend of mine says, if you aren't getting old, you're dead. A very good point, to be sure. At least we are not like the guy who is so old he won't buy green bananas.
I still talk to Tom Thoman at least once a week. We often speak of the "good old days" (which is a sure sign of getting older!)
I also listen to the all 50s station on XM radio. It's amazing what you can hear: "Charlie Brown," "Tammy," "the MTA," Teen Angel" [one of the saddest songs ever written], "Wake Up Little Susie," "I Ran All the Way Home," "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation," "It's All in the Game," "Calendar Girl," "The Purple People Eater," "Only the Lonely," and others.
God bless, peace, and be well.
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