1981
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Brushes
The children's department, in fact, the whole store, is a mess. Jodie comes in looking for Jeff and she finds him cleaning up with the brush she gave him. Off in the distance we hear mumbling and exclaiming and it's no mistake who that is. "I know who that is," Jodie says, as the muttering gets closer, "Do you?"
"Clear the tracks everyone!" Sam says as he tosses Jodie's cleaning supplies onto the counter. Jodie explains that the store is in such a mess because they had the biggest sale they ever had that day. Now it's up to Jodie and Jeff to clean it up before tomorrow. "We can do it!" Jeff says, "I'm a good helper!" Jodie agrees. "You're the best helper anybody ever had." she says. Sam says he's going to do some cleaning in the computer room as well and borrows a dust brush from Jodie's supplies. Muffy runs in and she's busy cleaning, too, she's only up to borrow some soap.
Jodie decides to start by using a paint brush to give a touch up to a display rack, and Jeff takes his brush and goes to clean up the bookshelves. He enjoys helping out.
In Muffy's room, she starts a song about using a scrub brush to clean her floor. In the children's department, Jodie continues the song, singing about her paint brush. Jeff sings about his little whisk brush and in the computer room, Sam sings about his dust brush. He ends by brushing TXL, who is ticklish, so "Tee hee!" appears on her screen.
When Jodie is finished painting her display rack, Jeff, admiring it, reaches out and touches the wet paint and gets paint on his hand and a mark on rack. Jodie paints over the mark, and suggests that they put a wet paint sign up. She decides to make the sign in green, but Jeff can only find blue paint and yellow paint. Jodie explains that if you have blue paint and yellow paint you can make your own green, and she demonstrates by mixing the two paints together in a glass container until they turn into green paint.
Back in Muffy's room, Muffy recites a rhyme about cleaning up, she calls it "Muffy's recipe for clean." She explains how to clean the floor, the dishes, and her clothes in the rhyme. "One by one, my jobs are finished and I had fun!" she ends.
Sam is cleaning, too, but he doesn't want to get his room too clean so he stops. He decides to brush Penelope now and suggests we listen to a story while he does it. He figures out who to get TXL to show the story and she tells us all about the little bird's fur coat, which was made for it by a very kind cat from fur from her brush.
Now Jodie is ready to sweep the children's department and she shows us a broom and asks if we know what it's used for. Jeff tries to guess. He uses it as a paddle first, then as a shovel, and then to play baseball, but he doesn't guess the right way, so Jodie reads him what it says in his "What Is It?" book. The book says it is used for sweeping.
Jeff remembers now! He demonstrates by pretending to fall asleep while leaning on the broom. "No," Jodie explains, "sweeping, not sleeping!" She shows him how to sweep. Next they decide to go downstairs to the window display and sweep out there and wash the windows. They they will come upstairs and finish the children's department. So off they march like soldiers to do their work. (Jeff gets caught in the door with his broom but soon gets through without a problem.)
Sam is still using a brush downstairs in the computer room. This time he's brushing his shoes and he notices a hole in it. "Ah, well, it's like I always say, the older the shoe the better it fits. A-one two polish my shoe, three-four, polish some more, five-six another two licks. Muffy's not the only one around here that knows how to make rhymes." Shining his shoes reminds him of taking his car to the car wash, so he shows us what happened when he and Jodie drove his car through the automatic car wash. Sam sings a sea shanty as they ride through, and Sam says he feels like his car works better when it's clean.
Next Sam shows us a join the dots game on TXL. He connects a few lines at a time until it is clear that the picture is of a comb.
Muffy is finished cleaning so she is painting a picture. She tells about how she loves to paint. After we see her painting, she shows us what she has painted -- her paint brush! "Now my mousterpiece is complete!" she says.
Up in the children's department things are looking much better. Sam has cleaned up for Jeff and Jodie and is now sweeping the trash up into a pile. Muffy offers to help but Sam thinks he's done. Muffy points out the pile of swept dirt needs to be picked up, too, and holds the dustpan as Sam sweeps the dirt away. They ask us not to tell Jeff and Jodie who cleaned up.
When Jeff and Jodie march back to the children's department they're shocked that it's all clean. Who could have cleaned up? Next she gives a clue in rhyme: "One has bristles that tickle, that's how it goes. The other carries a brush under his nose." Jeff remains puzzled but Jodie figures it out and helps Jeff to realize she's talking about Muffy (with whiskers that tickle), and Sam (with a "brush", his mustache, under his nose).
Jodie thanks everyone. "I don't know what I would've done without you."
"You wouldn't have had as much fun, that's for sure!" Sam says, and they all laugh.
Quizzes:
- One of these things is not a brush.
- Which brush has green paint on it?
- Is this a broom? Then what is it? (A horse's tail).
- Which two brushes are the same?
Nursery Rhyme:
- Sweep, sweep, chimney sweep
Notes:
- Sam's car in the car wash scene is a Volvo, and not his beloved Gertrude (from Cars, 1984).
- The story about the little bird's fur coat was first featured in Costumes.
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