Škoda!

jedna, dvĕ, tři, ... (1, 2, 3, ...)

Acclimating the boys to lots of walking required courting, cajoling, demanding, and diverting. Still does, actually. Diverting their attention (from all of this walking!) proves again and again to be the best bet. But with what? We can point out buildings' cool architectural features only so many times. Dogs are quite popular, but we can't count on spotting them often enough to keep boys' minds off of their feet. (Although, however distasteful pointing out the sidewalk poop mines may be, it does serve a useful purpose of keeping other things off of our shoes.)


sedmnáct, osmnáct, devatenáct, ... (17, 18, 19, ...)

Instead, we count Škodas ("shkodas" -- which makes it all the more fun to say!).


čtyřicet čtyři, čtyřicet pĕt, čtyřicet šest, ... (44, 45, 46, ...)

Almost as ubiquitous as Pilsner Urquell in the annals of Czech industry is the Škoda, a line of automobiles first manufactured in the early 1900s. For many years the car had a dubious reputation. Weak motors, maintenance problems -- Škodas had a good news/bad news story, both stories being that they were cheap.

But they were everywhere.


šedesát osm, šedesát devĕt, sedmdesát, ... (68, 69, 70, ...)

The quality of Škodas improved dramatically when Volkswagen became a company partner in 1991 and then took over in 2000. Škoda's image was slow to improve, but ironic ad campaigns ("It is a Škoda, honest," brought the Brits onboard) helped massage public perception.


osmdesát tři, osmdesát čtyři, osmdesát pĕt, ... (83, 84, 85, ...)

Though durable, Škodas are not nearly as prevalent as they used to be. It's not a given that every car -- or even every other car -- is a Škoda. So they must be counted.


devadesát devĕt, sto, sto jedna, ... (99, 100, 101, ...)

Here are the rules: we're one team, it's not a competition among the members (learned that lesson early). We spot the Škodas, point them out, and count them up. In Czech. Spotters identify the different Škodas by their color. The final tally includes Škodas counted to and from school. Škodas observed from the trolley are fair game. On the trip home we count every Škoda we spot, even if we suspect that we already counted a particular one in the morning. (What do we know? Could be a whole new car. Did we mention there are a lot of Škodas here?)


sto dvacet osm, sto dvacet devĕt, sto třicet! (128, 129, 130!)

Our family record is 130. We keep counting.


(... shhh. Don't tell the boys, but they've learned to count in Czech. ...)

sto třicet jedna? ... (131? ...)