Kip Christensen during the Great Depression, 1937 - 1938

Clifford Alvin "Kip" Christensen (1919 - 1972). The group picture shows my grandfather ("Grampa Kip") with two co-workers. Kip graduated from Waupaca HS in 1937 -- the depths of the Great Depression. He found work as a dishwasher at the Exchange Building cafe in Chicago. Letters from home during that time encouraged him to stick with the job, because work was so hard to find. These letters frequently mentioned the difficulties that one or another of his brothers were having finding steady work. One letter, from his married sister Mable, shows that Kip was already showing signs of the alcohol abuse that would shadow his life. The second picture was taken in Driggs, Idaho, the Teton Valley, in 1938. The 19 year old Kip was working on the Jack Buxton ranch in Driggs, Idaho, along with his older brother Earl.