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Maine School Boy

In or about the winter of 1947, Ruohomaa was inspired during a visit home to Dodge Mountain to spend a day taking pictures at a one room schoolhouse in the tiny town of Rockville, not far away. There, Ruohomaa returned to an experience close to his own heart — his time, more than 25 years earlier, attending the one-room Benner School near his home. In Rockville, he chronicled the mixed-age youngsters’ school day, including the solo trek home of one of the younger ones, and Ruohomaa’s first cousin once removed, five-year old Bobby Lofman. Well aware that his images depicted a time and way of life essentially gone by, Ruohomaa submitted the story to Life Magazine; it was featured as their February 1948 cover.