RURAL OREGON — In 1974, Cynthia Wall and her husband purchased a six-acre tree farm in Oregon after moving from Southern California with their children. The couple had sent out 100 job applications to the Northwest after Los Angeles smog caused respiratory problems for their two sons.

Wall's husband received three job offers in the Northwest and accepted a lower-paying position at a community college in Salem, Oregon. Their household income in Oregon was slightly less than in California, but the cost of living was lower.

The couple later acquired a ten-acre property in Oregon and raised ducks and chickens on their farm. As a full-time mother, Wall taught evening college classes and later switched to teaching day classes after her children began attending school.

Wall wrote articles about her early farming experiences for a local newspaper. Her husband, an avid scuba diver, caught enough Dungeness crabs to keep their freezer stocked from the Oregon coast, which was approximately one hour away from their farm.

Wall grew up in Studio City, Los Angeles, where her father was chief audio engineer at NBC Burbank for 38 years. She met Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, and Johnny Carson through her father's work. As a child, she sat in Tony Martin's lap in a Christmas sleigh while he sang "Jingle Bells".

Her family lived in a house built in 1945 and had the first television in the neighborhood, repurposed from a studio monitor. She attended Hollywood High School and learned to body surf at Zuma Beach on the Pacific Coast Highway.

She vacationed each summer in Nebraska to visit her father's cousins on a farm, where she rode horses, milked cows, and joined field hands for lunch during harvest. She also attended a first-night opening movie at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and experienced orange blossom and eucalyptus aromas in Los Angeles.

Both Wall and her husband were trained as teachers and held teaching jobs in Anaheim and Riverside before the move. Her husband grew up in Northern California. They first lived in Westwood, near UCLA, while her husband pursued a graduate degree.

Decades later, Wall and her husband continue to live in Oregon as retirees. They observe deer in their backyard, pick peaches from an orchard down the road, and notice the aroma of freshly cut hay.