Emma Jean the Cleaning Machine

When I was growing up, we had a woman, Emma Jean, who would come in and clean our house with the exception of my room. It was too messy even for the housecleaner. She was a hoot and half. She had whitest, bleach blonde hair I personally have ever seen, and she'd come rolling into 606 with her country music just blaring out of her Monte Carlo. The first order of business was to drink a pot of coffee with my mom and catch up with the week's past events. (She cleaned for about 6 other families. And as I have said in my other posts, gossip runs rampant in a small town.) Then they would decide what needed to be done. Since it was pretty much just my mom and me, and she didn't clean my room unless all the clothes were off the floor, they would decide what "high points" needed to be cleaned. Then she would turn all the TVs on to channel 2, the community notice channel, because it played music all day. After that it was fury of cleaning and singing. One of my favorite moments with Emma Jean was one morning during the summer, I was trying to sleep in, probably sleeping off the night before, and here she comes down the stairs with the vacuum, belting out "Angel in the Morning." It was so incredibly funny in my teenage mind, and in my 31 year old mind it still makes me laugh. I relayed this story to a friend of mine, Victor, who also had his house cleaned by Emma Jean. Now even as adults we still laugh about Angel in the Morning.

Anyway, I wish I still had Emma Jean coming over once week, hick every two weeks would be awesome.