Johnny Rustywire: Navajo mother worked hard at motel for family

The Pony Soldier Motel on Route 66 was just around the bend to East Flag—as in Flagstaff, Arizona, called Kinlani in Navajo. There are a lot of rooms in that place.

There was a woman, a cleaning woman who would work her way around those rooms cleaning up after sometimes messy people, picking up beer cans and stale pizza. Some rooms needed more time than others.

She wasn't too tall. She was a Native, and she was used to working to make the showers and tubs shine. “Go get me the vacuum, Sonny,” she would say. He would go and get it. “Plug it in, Sonny,” and he would do it while she stripped the sheets.

An old guy, the manager, used to come and check on her work. “Make sure you clean it all up,” he would say. She would nod her head and go about her cleaning.

She wore white shoes, the kind nurses wore and she wore a plain dress. Her hair was tied in a bun, and she would go from room to room. Tile and toilet bowls got the brush, and she cleaned the hair from the tub.

The carpet was green, and there was a TV in each room, they were old Zeniths. When she got done, she would go wait by the manager's office and he would check the rooms and then come back and pay fifty cents a room.