There Ain't No Devil, It's Just God When He's Drunk

All this Eastern European thinking (I know, I know, I still have 3 more days of adventures to post!) really got me thinking about my grandpa. He died when I was 10 (or 9), and while I remember being very close to him, I didn't really know anything about his past. I guess blathering on about early days Czechoslovakia isn't something you do when there are tractors to be ridden.

I wrote to my grandma to try to get more info on him now. She said that the tried to get his birth certificate and lucked out because she didn't thing she would have been able under the then communist regime. She said she also managed to get his school referral letter from Minnasota to back up the certificate. The city says Rozdelov ahn Kladno, but grandma says that his mom also gave Kladno as their original home. However, for all we know, Rozdelov ahn could just mean City of...

His original name was Vladislav Vilém Jilek, (wow, so European!) but changed his name to William Vietor Yilek, and then again to William (Bill) Victor Yilek. Apparently entering a new country during the late 1920s/30 (not sure when, but just shortly after WWI ended) with a name like Vladislav was a bit scary, so my grandpa went with his middle name which translated better.

I wish I had this info when I went to the Czech republic 4 years ago. I've alway been curious to see the city where my granpa grew up, and had I known it was only 30 kilom. from Prague, I would have put in some effort to make the journey. I remember grandpa telling me it was in the heart of Bohemia, which is why he found it so amusing that we lived a few miles from Bohemian Hwy.