I decided to write this autobiography primarily to leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren. Only after I started was I able to clarify what I wanted to write.
   My aim was to produce a personal account to reveal the life I led. I wanted to record how it had all happened. Although I knew the answers were all inside me, it was clear that only by digging up a great deal of the past, most of it forgotten, could I piece it together and tell a fairly accurate story. Remembering details of my early life was particularly difficult as I had virtually no documentation. I only started keeping letters and documents in the 1950's. So at the begining I had to rely mainly on people who knew me as a child, to help me reconstruct the facts.
   My aim was only to write a personal life-story. I could have written a lot more about the youth movement, the kibbutz, the kibbutz movement and Israel. But these subjects appear only to the extent necessary to describe my story. I did not attempt to deal with them historically.
   I also discovered that the tricky part of writting an autobiography is not to deciding what you write, but rather what you leave out. I want to apologise to people who may read this book and find they have not been mentioned, despite the fact that they played a part, maybe even an important part, at some time during my life. It was for this reason that I added three appendices giving more details. Ideally appendix 1, about my family tree, should be read after chapter 8, appendix 2, about my stay in Australia - after chapter 19, and appendix 3, about my stay in England - after chapter 22.
   I have written my story as openly as I could - telling the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth. As a result I have included a fair share of the tears as well as the laughter. We humans are warmest when we are creating, But I have done my best to deal honestly with the cold and unpleasant parts of my life as well. There was a time, at the height of my activity in the kibbutz and movements when, each morning I would look in the mirror and say to myself. "You can't win". I claimed that in that way life became a little easier. To-day, in my semi-retirement, I have discovered that you can win - certainly at my age, providing you make up your mind to grow old in the way you choose.
   Finally I want to thank the people who helped me to write this autobiography. To my immediate family: Shosh and our children; Yossi, Shmulik, Aviva, Natan and their families, who all allowed me to write about them without limitations. To Shosh, not only for reading every fresh chapter and giving me honest feedback, but also for helping to remember incidents which often made a difference in telling my story accurately and in an interesting way.
   To Len Goldzweig of Haifa, who one day came and offered his services as an editor. His efforts went much further than helping to make this a readable book. He taught me a great deal about writing in general, and as I intend to continue this hobby for many years to come, I can't thank him enough.
   Thomas Edison once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. This also applies to writing a book. For me the realy perspiring part was the technical side. Writing in the 1990's I naturally used a word processor. Many thanks to Jason Pearlson, of Kfar Hanassi, who served as my consultant on technical problems relating to the word processor. And to Tania Cina of Haifa for her great help in preparing the text for printing. She and Jason showed endless patience in dealing wiht a computer idiot! Thanks also to Reggie Pearlson for designing the cover, and to Edna Collins for proof-reading the book.
   In addition, there were many people, my family, members of Kfar Hanassi and other friends, who showed lively interset from the day I began this book. Their show of interest had much more effect than they could imagine.
   Finally, I return to my children and grandchildren. I hope, at some stage, you will all read this book. My story is not special. The truth is we all have an interesting story to tell. My only regret is that neither my parents nor my grandparents wrote their life-story. I know so little about them, and to a large extent I missed out on learning about my roots. I hope this book helps you to discover part of yours.

Kfar Hanassi - Gershie Epstein
Israel - August 1995