Family time is important to Kathy and Chrissy Valley. The mother and daughter live near each other, make time to shop together and have family dinners every Sunday. And, for almost a year now, the two also carpool to campus and work together as custodians.

Kathy Valley owned a cleaning business for 20 years before becoming a custodian at UC Davis in 1999. Her eldest daughter, Chrissy, worked in retail at a number of grocery stores until joining the custodial staff last year. Chrissy regularly works at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital, and her mother is stationed at the Primate Center; but every once in a while they will get paired together.

Sweeping aside urban legends

The mother and daughter drive to and from work together every day, starting at 5 p.m. and punching out at 1:30 a.m. "I've always been a night person so it's not a problem for me," says Kathy, 63, of her schedule.

Getting to bed late is only part of what comes with working past the witching hour though. Both Kathy and Chrissy say they've heard stories about how many buildings on campus, including the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center and Hart Hall are haunted. And some are just plain flat creepy at night.

"The first night I was here they told me stories about how people go into the Primate Center and never come back," says Chrissy. "I think people come up with stories about places they just don't want to go to."

But, Kathy adds, "you do always think about those things when you're alone."

Chrissy isn't bothered by the ghost stories, or much else about her job. "The Vet Med Hospital is an interesting place to work," she says. "People bring their dogs to work, and they're always running around in the halls."

And where else could you meet Captain? He's the Clydesdale horse of Budweiser football commercial fame, who was a celebrity guest of the hospital for a time while he was out of action with a torn ligament, Chrissy says. "They told us he goes crazy when he sees a football" -- yet another urban legend.

"But we know that's not true," Kathy interjects, "because the commercials are all computer-generated anyway."

Runs in the family

Chrissy, 39, was introduced to her mom's work at an early age. She often tagged along as a kid to help Kathy clean a house or office.

"It wasn't as much fun back then," she says. "I would have rather been home with friends or something."

It was Kathy who suggested that Chrissy -- who also has been a volunteer firefighter -- try for a custodial position on campus. "I had never even thought about that," says Chrissy. "Sometimes you're blind to the things closest to you."

Sticking together

Kathy has been active in the lives of Chrissy and her younger sister, Vicki Nitzkowski, ever since they were children.

"When we were in school, Mom was always home when we got back," says Chrissy. "She always knew what we were doing; we could never fool Mom."

"I just wanted to know what my kids were up to," Kathy says.

The Valley family has remained tight-knit over the years. Kathy and her husband, a supervisor at a nut company, still live in Winters and their children are right around the corner.

"As soon as they turned 18, they both threatened they were going to get out and move out of California," Kathy says of her girls. "But now Chrissy lives half a block from me and Vicki lives 2 blocks away."

The Valleys take advantage of their proximity. They shop and go out to lunch together often, and go on "just the girls" vacations. Kathy and her two daughters recently got back from Las Vegas. More importantly though, every Sunday the whole family gets together at Kathy's house for dinner.

"Just being together on Sundays and being able to kick back with a nice home-cooked meal is my favorite thing to do with family," Chrissy says. "Mom complains about cooking for everyone, but we know she likes it."

To which Kathy replies: "No, I just don't like to clean up."