We all know old stories behind street names. Some are named after inventors, war heroes, mountain peaks or mountain ranges. The history of Skipper street is not so ordinary story. It was not called Skipper street since the dawn of time. It used to be called – Peace street. The Skipper family lived there. They were not called the Skippers for nothing. Dad being a gym teacher obviously preferred skipping. Mom, a housewife, skipped from one pot to the other and little Lacko skipped into every talk. Mom and dad only ever skipped around and that is what they wanted from their firstborn son. 29 Skipper senior and Mrs Skipper took part in yearly skipping contests. But their son, he was not really into it. He went with them year after year. As soon as he could talk, he was taught to count so that he could count his own skips. However, little Lacko was never truly fond of skipping. Nevertheless, his parents did not despair. He counted their skips at contests regularly. As time went by little Lacko grew quickly and so did his distaste for skipping. The older he got, the harder he tried to come up with a plan not to attend the contests. Yet, he could think of nothing. A week before the next contest he started to think about why his parents need him there. He counted their skips! Now he had to figure out a way out of this responsibility. Everybody knows how to count, so all that was needed was to find someone who would do it instead of him. So the same day, he set out into town to look for some volunteers. He skipped from house to house, but no volunteers were to be found. All that was left was to invent a skipping rope that would count skips on its own. Inventing such a thing is no easy feat! For days and nights, he mused about the solution. After several failed attempts he started to doubt his chance for success. Then, one night a strange dream occurred to him. He was sitting behind his desk trying to devise the perfect plan for the skipping rope. His memory was foggy, and it appeared to him that someone is telling him how to do it. The plan really worked in the dream. Next morning right after waking up, he took all his designs and devised a plan, the one he dreamt about. After several hours, a couple minutes before setting off for the contest, he presented the invention to his mother and father. They found it funny at first. How could a simple rope count skips? But as soon as they tried it out, they were astonished. It really worked! Even though the parents were not fond of the direction their son had decided to take, they were definitely proud of what his distaste for skipping accomplished. The rumour about a skipping rope that can count quickly spread and soon, everybody in town heard about the Skippers. Not a single person would call the street they lived in other names than Skipper street. After many years of nicknames, the official name became Skipper street.
Story from the book “What Is Whispered About the Copper City”, Primary School Moskovská 2, Banská Bystrica. Author of the story: Svetlana Kmeťová, Primary School Pieninská 27, Banská Bystrica.
