EDIT: Terrible timing for this post, as I just heard the news. Thanks for all the music and my family memories, Ms. Parton.

As a kid, I always thought that Parton’s song (and movie) 9 to 5 inspired the mexican comedy Mi Secretaria. The premises were similar, as were some of the jokes. Perhaps both American and Mexican working cultures have a greater intersection that expected.

9 to 5 is a film close to my heart. Both my mum and my aunt loved the movie, and would stop everything if it was on TV, which was often. Lily Tomlin I knew from The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Jane Fonda I knew only due to this film, and Dolly Parton, well, I knew her from the duet with Kenny Rogers, and I wasn’t aware actors and musicians could jump fields.

I was five or so when I first watched the movie, by the way.

Both 9 to 5 and What’s Up, Doc? were comfort films as a kid. Movies I would watch with both my mum and my aunt, and if they were cooking anything at all, I would be required to take their place and continue while they watched the film. There were probably parts a kid shouldn’t be watching (or whose context would fly over their head) I guess.

Strangely enough, I only got to Jolene way later in my life. For years, Dolly Parton was 9 to 5 and I always love you, and Jolene was like a gateway song to listen to the rest of her discography.

But 9 to 5 has its place, more on how it reminds me of my aunt and my mum, and learning to cook.

-Sam J. Valdés López