Stockbridge

Stockbridge is the quintessence of small-town New England charm, untainted by large-scale development. It is also the blueprint for small-town America as represented on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post by painter Norman Rockwell (the official state artist of Massachusetts). From 1953 until his death in 1978, Rockwell lived in Stockbridge and painted the simple charm of its buildings and residents. James Taylor sang about the town in his hit "Sweet Baby James," as did balladeer Arlo Guthrie in his famous Thanksgiving anthem "Alice's Restaurant," in which he tells what ensued when he tossed some garbage out the back of his Volkswagen bus down a Stockbridge hillside.