Skoda - Best Host Ever

I looked today at photo storage and was at checkout ready to click on more storage from google but I searched for an hour on their sites and terms of agreement and not anywhere could I find out how to cancel your monthly subscription. There were no highlighted areas or "click here" on any of the terms or on the "buy now" pages. I was actually shocked that I couldn't find it. I may not have looked hard enough but I looked hard enough for my eyes to hurt and me to be very tired and I feel an attack of "sit-itus" coming on. I wish they would have a yearly fee, pay one time as I hate having to send a check every month and spend extra on a stamp monthly.

I will go back and post photos once I figure the .com out. I really don't want to pay for two sites as I have heard that I will get much more views once I am off Blogger. I just need to figure it out. I think because of the problems I had last time I tried to switch, I am a bit "gun shy" to try again. I figure "how hard can it really be?" as they have a button that will pull over all your past blogs but it is a time thing. When I think about sitting down to focus on it knowing it will take me some time, I get frustrated and decide to work on other things. I need to get Continuing Education Units done for my licenses and we just bought Princess two a new car (new to her anyway) which needs some work and I still need to write my Christmas letter to friends and family as well as trying to make my girls Christmas presents. I was up all night last night, (I know I am doing that way to often) but I almost finished another gift for Princess five and worked some today on one for Princess number 4. I can't show them on here as Princess four does sometimes look at this blog so I will have to wait to show you the fun thing I came up with for them. I think you will like it and it will work for girls and boys.

Anyway, back to the main post... Skoda is the third oldest car company in the world. They have the market in the Eastern Block countries. 

Fifty years ago, my mother went behind the iron curtain and modeled for a south American company that made Combines that went into cars. The main car in Europe was the Skoda "Felicity."

My mother said it was scary visiting back then as no one would speak to you on the street and the streets were empty. She said there was nothing in the shop windows and nothing "extra" was for sale. Just the basics. Here is a link to some of the photos of her with the car in Europe.  Once you are at the site, there is a photo gallery on the right side where you can see her in other photos. No one remembers where the color pictures were taken as the photographer died in an Earthquake in Peru many years ago and his daughter only has copies in black and white of my mother in Prague with the car. My mother doesn't know where they took her to do the horse shoot but it was interesting to be able to see those photos as we only had copies of the black and white photos as well. 

Weird story about how they came upon those photos we had never seen. There is a man who works for Oracle Computers who was friends with a historian for Skoda Car company. The original book was given to the president of Skoda at the time the shots were taken by the Owner of the Combine company from South America. When the President of Skoda died many years later, his daughter donated the book back to Skoda. Fast forward a few years. The man who worked for Oracle was visiting the Historian for Skoda and saw and hand made leather bound book in the corner. He asked if he could look at the book. He looked at it and asked the Historian if he could borrow the book for a week and scan the pictures making a documentation of the book. He had a friend at work scan the book and make a slide show of the photos. He then posted them on Flickr where a few years later, my sister looked them up. As you can't copy them, she wrote the man that posted them and asked about the photos. He sent her a disc of the pictures. The man had nothing to do with my mother or Skoda. I am not sure what possessed him to find the book and copy it or to put the photos online be we are sure glad he did. We met the man this week. I'll share about that later. 

The Skoda Company said that due to these shots with my mother, the U.S. dealership ordered 15,000 Skoda cars but they were still making them by hand and only made just over 400 of them to ship to the US that year.

Flash forward fifty years. Skoda contacted me last year asking if my mother had anything they could include in their museum display as they were opening a Skoda Museum at the site of the original product line. My mother doesn't have much from the time as she had a house fire and lost many of her cherished items. I told them I was hesitant to send the items across the world and possibly lose two of the few things we had left of that time in my mothers life.

They asked if she could make the trip to visit and be a special guest for the grand opening on her own. I told them there was no way she could make it. They then asked if I could take her. I didn't tell my mother about it as I didn't know if I could do it and be away from my girls. I prayed about it and spoke to my siblings about it and felt that I should take my mother. 

Flash forward.... The company and its wonderful workers, Zaneta, Blanka and Lukas, worked hard getting us our flights booked and planning an itinerary for us. 




I'll share details tomorrow. Pray that I can figure out the online thing and get myself moving to the .com.