This Betty is the keeper of all things Boop

Oh sure, the 57-year-old administrative assistant will boop-boop-a-doop, but she'll rush through it rather abashedly, sounding thoroughly under duress because she's too polite to decline a request for her best Boop impersonation.

There will certainly be no wide-eyed, high-octave vampiness involved.

But it's easy to see how one might think there's a flapper lurking in there somewhere, given that there's more Boop than you might think possible in a little cubby in Tucson Unified School District.

Here's the irony: She didn't even start the collection herself. It's sort of like Boop said, "I want to be loved by you," and the TUSD transportation department responded, bequeathing the resulting collection to Mendez because, to someone, it just made sense.

There are dolls, key chains, purses, posters, clocks and license plates, one asking drivers to "beep if you boop." There are mugs and candy dispensers and Christmas ornaments. Even a wind swirl and a windshield visor and a Halloween mask and a lipstick case and a pillow.

And Mendez seems to know exactly who gave each one to her, crediting a driver with this contribution and a mechanic with that or her old boss with this.

Her first Betty: a red doll given to her in 2000, a year after she started in the department, by a driver who just liked the fact she shared a name with the pre-Marilyn Monroe pinup girl.

Her most prized Betty: a postcard from Hawaii with Betty as Scarlett in "Gone With the Wind." Across the top: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a boop."

Her biggest surprise: When she came in one day to find that transportation staffers had built her a shelf to restore some semblance of order to the constantly evolving collection.

Mendez said she always liked the cartoon character, calling her "fun," and she likes seeing what new item staffers will find on their travels.

Lupita Alvarez, a payroll technician, said she herself is always on the lookout for pieces to contribute. And on occasion, she cruises by just to see what she might have missed in earlier passes.

Alvarez said it's true that Mendez isn't terribly Boopy. "The two together aren't even remotely connected, but it's something we all really enjoy in the department," she said. "And when kids come by, they're just in awe of it."

With Mendez's 58th birthday coming up in October, she has on occasion fielded questions of what will become of the collection when she retires. "I'll take it home with me because I love it so much," she says.

But she does feel a little guilty, given that the department created it.

And maybe that's OK. There's nothing Betty would like better than a little tug-of-war for her affections.

"The two (Betties) aren't even remotely connected, but it's something we all really enjoy in the department. And when kids come by, they're just in awe of it."

Lupita Alvarez, TUSD transportation payroll technician