Maine Outing Club Patch, Felt — c. 1940s-50s

A vintage Maine Outing Club patch, estimated to date from the 1940s or 50s, cut from a round of tan felt with no applied border at all — the edge raw, thinned and fraying away on every side. A navy ring carries MAINE across the top and OUTING CLUB around the bottom, with a dark pine standing alone on an olive-green disc in the middle.

Outing clubs are how most people in the Northeast actually got outdoors. A van, a sign-up sheet on a corkboard, dues of a few dollars a term, and somebody's father who owned a roof rack and was prepared to drive.

No resort ever put that on a billboard, and no resort could have existed without it.

The clubs also did something no resort has ever managed, which is make skiing cheap. Group rates, shared gas, borrowed gear and a bus. An entire generation got into the sport because somebody organized a sign-up sheet.

Embroidered on felt, cut edge, no applied border, with thinning and fraying throughout. Photos are the condition report.