November 16th, 2014

Chip Protests

by Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne

It is fun to go back and look at vintage Hi and Lois pages and see experiences that I can remember from my youth reflected in the strip.  When I was a kid, my father made me rake leaves on Saturdays in the fall and it has always been one of my least favorite household chores.  He obviously found humor in the situation because he used it on numerous occasions for gags in Hi and Lois.  This Sunday page was published when I was thirteen years old, so I might have been an inspiration.

HI and Lois Sunday page color proof, November 7, 1965.

This seasonal battle has a long tradition in the strip.  Every autumn, Chip is forced to help clean up the yard and he always complains vociferously.  In this Sunday page from 1997, he expresses his rebellion by adapting a familiar protest song.

Hi and Lois Sunday page, November 2, 1997.

Chip is not a bad kid, so he usually ends up doing what Hi tells him to do.  I also learned, when my father made me rake leaves, that resistance was futile.

Many years ago, I hired my neighbor’s son to clean up my yard. I still feel a sense of relief when I realize I don’t have to spend my weekends raking leaves. It is money well spent.

– Brian Walker