The 1930s and 1940s are generally considered to be the most fruitful decades of Rockwell's career. The family moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939, and Rockwell's work increasingly reflected small-town American life. His paintings employed wit, pathos and extraordinary technical expertise to convey stories and images that still touch young and old alike. Although Rockwell drew on the work of other great artists in creating his images, it was the ordinary routines of life that inspired his work. Boys batting flies on vacant lots, little girls playing jacks on the front steps, old men plodding home at twilight, umbrella in hand - all of these things arouse feeling in me.
Commonplaces never become tiresome.
It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative. The paintings were reproduced in The Saturday Evening Post along side essays by prominent thinkers of the day. As an interpretation of the individual's role in democracy, Rockwell's series proved enormously popular. A fire destroyed his Arlington studio, including numerous paintings and his collection of historic costumes and props. The Rockwell family moved from Arlington to Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1953.