{"product_id":"vintage-smugglers-notch-ski-club-embroidered-patch","title":"Smugglers’ Notch Ski Club Patch, Felt — c. 1950s-60s","description":"\u003cp\u003eA vintage Smugglers' Notch Ski Club patch from Jeffersonville, Vermont, estimated to date from the 1950s or early 60s, worked on a round of cream felt with a red ring chain-stitched around the edge. SMUGGLERS' NOTCH arched in blue across the top, JEFFERSONVILLE, VT. around the bottom, Ski Club in blue script through the middle, and a small skier in a red cap and yellow jacket riding one ski across the words.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eClub patches came off a membership roll, not a cash register. Somebody paid dues, showed up on Saturdays, worked a race or ran a lift or sold raffle tickets for the chair fund, and got this at the end of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat distinction matters more than it sounds. Resort patches tell you a mountain existed and sold souvenirs. Club patches tell you who was actually there every single weekend in the cold, making the place work — the people who ran the gates, drove the vans, taught the kids, and kept a small Vermont ski area alive through the decades when small Vermont ski areas were dying at a rate of several a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNobody wrote their names down. This is roughly the extent of the record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA ski area needs about two hundred people who care more than is reasonable. The club is where you found them, and a patch like this is how you know their names existed even when the records do not. Nobody has a list. There is only the object and the inference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChain-stitched on felt, hand-worked edge, with loose threads at the border. Photos are the condition report.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ropetow Vintage Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56978788516145,"sku":"RV-VT-031","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0996\/2048\/7473\/files\/ropetow-vintage-co-smugglers-notch-ski-patch_dd7f9c20-47c1-4e77-8ee2-c3c305eb2df7.webp?v=1792339656","url":"https:\/\/ropetowvintage.com\/products\/vintage-smugglers-notch-ski-club-embroidered-patch","provider":"Ropetow Vintage","version":"1.0","type":"link"}