The Soviet Union was in the middle of a tremendous wheat shortage, plus a grain embargo led by the US, and was struggling to find ways to keep its citizens fed. American politicians seized this opportunity to help Russian Jews escape from the Iron Curtain. They negotiated a trade with the Soviet government: wheat for exit visas. Thousands of lives suddenly and unexpectedly changed, including mine. I still wonder how much wheat my young family's freedom was worth. Realizing that family history stories our parents and grandparents are telling us don't necessary register and are kept in our brains, is the reason for my memoirs.