On this page you can see some details of my early life, events that shaped me and few of my my interests. See our Šternberk story, all about the Rohel namesake, our Rohel genealogy/rodokmen page, or Names pages for close and distant relatives. *Picture collage link on right - may take a while to load with dial-up. Clicking on a thumbnail picture will generally provide a larger image, sometimes with an enlargement box "bottom right". If you have additional material, please contact me via email (Petecz), guestbook, phone or mail.

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My life: Middle child of eight, I Petr (aka Peter or Pete the Czech) was born in Šternberk pop.14,000 street map, near Olomouc, Moravia, communist Czechoslovakia, where I lived 14 years. The town (people site) is best known for its annual European Ecce Homo car races in all categories, including historical cars. They also use to hosting Euoro-motocross races and perhaps that's why, out of the several motorcycles I owned in Toronto, one was a CZ-250 motocross. My parents Miroslav Rohel + Adele Heidi (Klimesch) Rohel enjoyed outdoor activities, sports, gardening and Sunday family walks. We were aware of North America, as almost all of our mother's relatives escaped Europe during WW-II, after their Czech & Austrian factories and assets were confiscated, see our mother's family Textile Factory story. Adele visited Canada on two occasions and four relatives came to visit us; Gertrude, Clarisse, Herbert and Alastair. Our mother would bring back "great toys and gifts" from the West, including a large Eaton's department store catalogue, we all enjoyed viewing. I remember owning a pair of Wranglerjeans, perhaps the only pair in town and wearing them proudly, until there was nothing left of them. As with many people of that generation, our parent's lives were greatly altered by WW-II, but they survived it, as well as communism that followed. See Radio Prague articles Czechs in WW-II: Heroes or cowards? Liberating Ostrava - Bloodiest WW-II battle on Czech soil, World War II - 60 years on category I requested and Aug. 2005 Government apologizes for Czech victimization of loyal, anti-Nazi Sudeten Germans after WWII, similar by Prague Post

Early 60's-1968: I have fond memories of the outdoor activities, sports, climbing tall trees to pick fruit, going to camp organized by the factory my parents worked at Moravia (now Mora-Top) and having several friends. At an early age I became a recycler, not because I believed in saving the environment at the age of (10), but because I learned if I collect paper, textile & metals, I could earn money. Being an alter boy, was another source of nominal income to complement my family allowance, based on duties performed. Outgoing, active, materialistic and mischievous, I needed spending money to have fun. Sunday afternoon movies with friends were also a big hit, especially the popular Winnetou - series. In 1966, the Beatles hair cut came to town and when I went to the barber and he asked me "what do you want?", all I had to say was "Beatles please". Behind where we lived was a creek, where we would build a dam for swimming, skate and meet our neighborhood friends. My leisure time activities included cycling & working on bikes, building home-made sleds (cross between bobsled & luge with wheels or skates), "old west" home-made articles (tomahawks, bows & arrows, costumes), sports, mopeds, etc. During the latter years of this period I discovered girls and dating, just as other young males of my age did in Czechoslovakia.

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August 21, 1968: I was 13, when our radio woke me during the night. I asked my parents "what's going on?" and they replied "Russians are coming" and they're trying to break into the Radio Prague station. Later that day, we heard a different noise, this time it was the sound of "Tanks in our Town". I recall getting together with my friends to see what was happening. The streets were full of tanks and military vehicles. We asked the soldiers "where do you come from?"  and to our surprise, they said "Poland". It did not matter they were not Russian, the soldiers were invading our country and as such in our minds, they were no different. We proceeded to throw rocks and other items at the vehicles, as well as put nails in the tire valves - to deflate them. Others would park their farm machinery on roads, block traffic and remove or change street signs, to stop their advancement. After the invasion, the stores would become almost empty for a while, as Polish and later Russian soldiers would buy-up everything. They would walk in the store with a box of money, printed specifically for the invasion. In August 2005, Polish general, ex-president Jaruzelski, apologized for the role his country played in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia

August 2, 1969: Date of our "Escape to the West". Only the elder (3 of 7) children leaving by train, knew that our family was escaping and not coming back. Rest of us in the car, were told we are going on a vacation, visiting relatives in Vienna and therefore, could not say goodbye to our friends and let the secret out. The possibility of either group not making it across the border was high. My two sisters and brother arrived considerably late in Vienna and neither party knew, if the others made it across the border. Later we were told, that the plan was to escape earlier in (Oct. 1968), but while driving to pick-up their visa, dad had a car accident. My parents had to wait for the court proceedings to complete, before they could try again. I can just imagine the stress by all that "knew the plan - family, relatives, friends" were under. Waiting and waiting and hoping, that the border would not be shut down in the meantime. We made it "just in the nick of time", as the border was shut down (1-2) moths after our escape for everyone, except of course, "good communists".

We stayed with friends of my mother Hubert + Lisl (von Zimmermann) SCHÜCK and their son Georg, in a nice 2-bedroom apartment next to the Parkhotel Schönbrunn. I am sure the family of three expected our family of (9) to only stay for few weeks, just as we did, not knowing it would take us (6) months to receive exit visas. As I was under age for employment in Vienna, I kept busy discovering the city, all the sights, museums and Schönbrunn Castle-Park, across from the apartment. We are grateful to the SCHÜCK family for everything they did for us, especially their hospitality and patience.

My parents, (2) younger siblings and I also visited Salzburg and Lisl's sister Dorothea "Dorli" + Wolfgang von REHLINGEN 1270+ genealogy and their daughter Sylvia in Berchtesgarden, Germany for (2) weeks. They lived in a nice Bavarian-style country home, surrounded by mountains. The deer nearby became my alarm clock in the mornings, as they engaged each other with their antlers. Trips to the mountains gave us the opportunity to see mountain goats, go on lake Königssee cruise, see Hitler's eagles nest and Munich. We were also interested in visiting the Straubing prison, where our dad Miroslav was a political prisoner during WW-II (1943-1945), due to being a member of the resistance group “Obran a Národa”. The (2) previous years (1941-1943) he spent in Breslau prison, now Wroclaw, Poland. We were not allowed to enter the Straubing facility, due to it being a civilian prison now. We did visit Dachau Concentration camp, the prison our dad was being marched to, before American planes bombed the Germans and he escaped. I must say, both Vienna and Germany were an eye opener for this 14 year old boy, from a small communist town. We are thankful to family von Rehlingen for their hospitality.

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January 15, 1970, we arrived at my uncles Arthur + Beatrice (Bonnell) KLIMES home in Montreal. My aunt Lottie (Böhm) + Donald MACKAY offered to let one child stay with them for six month in Pleasantville, N.Y., while the rest of the family remained in Canada. Since I always enjoyed adventure, I jumped at the opportunity, even though my relatives did not speak Czech and I knew no English. Arriving in the middle of a school year, I repeated half of (gr. 8) at Byram Hills High School (BHHS) to learn English. After six months, the Mackay's offered to let me stay for another year and I continued my (gr. 9) education. True Grit was my first book and Green Barrets, (also starring John Wayne), my first movie. The movie was being shown in our school and in one scene, J.W. tells the visiting politicians: "The war is not against Vietnam, it's against Communism; look at where the guns come from: Russia, China and Czechoslovakia". Although I could barely understand English, I got the message, especially when several students began to look at me. After the movie, my friends understood why we escaped. As a family, we skied a lot, hiked, traveled, relatives would visit, studied, go to church and enjoyed our youth. I am grateful to my MACKAY relatives, as the 18 months proved to be very helpful to our family, as well as a lot of fun, being the only foreigner in the school. My aunt, uncle and (4) cousins were great, accepting this foreigner's sudden intrusion in their lives. Thanks! Also, on behalf of my family, I would like to thank the KLIMES family, for everything they did to welcome and help the Rohel's.

1972: Three of my friends (James, Ned & Peter) from Pleasantville "hitch-hiked" to our home in Toronto (830 km/516 mi) and we continued hiking onwards to Algonquin Park (302 km/188 mi) north of Toronto, for a two week vacation. We rented canoes at the park and used our outdoor skill to cross several lakes. On one island, we lost some of our food in the middle of the night to a "wild bear with her cubs" and after scarring them away, we continued to enjoy the Canadian outdoors and our friendship.

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SPORTS: The Mackay's have a cottage in Waitsfield, Vermont and were members at the Glenn Ellen, VT (now Sugarbush) ski resort. Although I started Skiing at the age of (3), the Glen Ellen experience improved my capability tremendously, allowing me to become (1 of 2) freshman's on the BHHS ski team. As a result, in late 70's I was able to become a ski instructor, amateur freestyle judge, take a college "co-op ski resort management " program and enjoy skiing in Europe and North America ever since. My U.S. friends also introduced me to Golf, but the game continues to be a lot more challenging, unlike my past or present sports: Soccer, Tennis, Squash, Bowling, Volleyball and Softball *picture: 1971 Glen Ellen Nastar race

Comment: Living in communist Czechoslovakia (14) years, USA (2 1/2) and Canada since, exposed me to different way of managing a nation. Thanks to Pope John Paul II and President Reagan defeat of communism, millions of people were freed from tyranny. Genealogy certainly gives us insight into politics, religions, nations and their historical roles. *see my Radio Prague - Czech beer contest entry and Petecz travel pictures

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