Ski Pleasant Mountain Patch (Snowman) — c. 1970s

A vintage Ski Pleasant Mountain patch from Bridgton, Maine, estimated to date from the 1970s, a pointed shield with a red merrowed border. SKI PLEASANT MOUNTAIN in white block caps across a blue sky, BRIDGTON ME. at the point, and in the middle a snowman on red skis — pale blue and white, a small blue cap, arms flung out, grinning, coming straight down the fall line over a row of white peaks.

He has no legs, no edges and no plan, and he is going considerably faster than any of that warrants. That is the entire appeal and it has not aged a day.

There is something about mascots from small mountains. They were drawn to be reassuring — to tell a nervous eight-year-old in a lift line that this was going to be fine. Nobody collects them seriously, no museum keeps the artwork, and the people who drew them were freelance and unnamed. What exists is whatever got sewn onto a jacket and survived.

Pleasant Mountain is still running, which makes the snowman a rarer thing than the patches from the dead hills: a retired mascot from a mountain that is still open and has long since moved on to a logo.

Embroidered on twill, merrowed edge. Photos are the condition report.