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Here, gathered in our beloved South Dakota, are a few members of our Williamson / Mattson Clan. Charles and Luella are to be blamed (be kind, they didn't know what they were doing). We're generally a happy bunch and somewhat intelligent (notwithstanding our tenuous grasp on reality). I'm also proud to say that most of us still have our teeth.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Grandpa Walter Mattson's CCC photo Album. Pictures of Grandpa and Grandma Mattson.

From the Fortress of Solitude
Pleasant Grove

Hello All,
Grandpa Mattson (born 1912) served in the CCC in Montana as a young man in the mid 1930's.  The CCC stood for the Civilian Conservation Corps.  It was a place to work when work was hard to come by during the great depression.  He had a photo album during his time with the CCC.  I've taken his album and scanned the few photos of him, and young lady he had his eye on for possible matrimony.
Grandpa left the CCC in 1937 or 38, travelled to California to take a job on a ship heading to South America.  That didn't work out, so on his way back to Montana, he stopped to see his girlfriend Violet and the rest is history.  Violet (born 1918) and her family had moved to California from Montana while Walter was in the CCC.

First, the relationship chart.

Relationship Chart




The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families as part of the New Deal. Originally for young men ages 18–23, it was eventually expanded to young men ages 17-28. Robert Fechner was the head of the agency. It was a major part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men, to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States while at the same time implementing a general natural resource conservation program in every state and territory. Maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000; in nine years 3 million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter, clothing, and food, together with a small wage of $30 a month ($25 of which had to be sent home to their families).
The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs. Principal benefits of an individual's enrollment in the CCC included improved physical condition, heightened morale, and increased employability. Implicitly, the CCC also led to a greater public awareness and appreciation of the outdoors and the nation's natural resources; and the continued need for a carefully planned, comprehensive national program for the protection and development of natural resources.
During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide and upgraded most state parks, updated forest fire fighting methods, and built a network of service buildings and public roadways in remote areas.



A little fun during down time.  Notice the outhouse.  It was primitive in the CCC camp.  I believe Grandpa Mattson is seated wearing the dress???



Grandpa Mattson with a friend.


A picture of his sweetheart Violet, his future wife and our grandmother, with a friend in Grandpa's photo album.


Grandpa Walter Mattson.


Grandpa Mattson is holding the guitar in this group photo in front of their tents.


Another picture of his sweetheart, our Grandma Mattson, taken from his album.

Thanks for reading,

Simply,
Victor