Snow Valley Snowman Patch, Manchester — c. 1960s-70s

A vintage Snow Valley ski patch from Manchester, Vermont, estimated to date from the 1960s or 70s, featuring the same red-hatted snowman holding his skis upright — here moved off felt and onto cream twill, given an arched top and a gold merrowed border. Snow Valley in red script over MANCHESTER, VT. in blue.

He turns up on more than one Snow Valley patch, which means somebody there understood what they had. A mountain with a mascot has something the mountain next door does not: a face, and a reason for a child to want the sticker.

Forty years after the lifts stopped, he is doing work nobody intended. He is the reason these patches get picked up off a table instead of passed over, the reason the name Snow Valley means anything at all to people born after it closed, and the reason the mountain has any public memory whatsoever.

A ski area is a business, a payroll and a snow report. When all of that goes, what is left is whatever somebody once drew to make it look friendly.

There is a small, odd industry in reproducing these for people who want the nostalgia without the object. Those are easy to spot and worth nothing. This is not one of them — it is the actual article, made for an actual ski area, sold at an actual counter to somebody who was actually there.

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