Salem Pig makes a comeback
SALEM – The Salem Pig returned to West Main Street under cover of darkness last night, and it’s already been painted twice in its first 12 hours.
It isn’t the same pig, of course, which sat next to now-gone Henry’s Memphis BBQ but the new pig is two doors away from where the first one stood.
The Salem Pig returned to West Main Street under the cover of darkness Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning had already been painted twice. This new porker purchased by Elite Towing is next to Crossroads Hobbies, in background. Photo by Meg Hibbert
West Main Pig II is next to Crossroads Hobby Shop on the corner of West Main and Bruffey Street. The 700-pound concrete porker was bright pink with “Salem Pig” painted on it when people spotted Elite Towing business partners Jeff Wimmer and Johnny McLain arriving in Salem Tuesday afternoon with the pig they purchased in Boones Mill.
By the morning of Sept. 1, the pig had already been painted with red and orange splotches and large SS letters. Visible through the newer paint were the painted words, Salem Pig, and words in marker on both sides that declared “Your Pig is Back.”
“As much as Salem does for us, we wanted to give something back,” said Wimmer, who lives near Glenvar High School and appreciates the GHS–Salem High School rivalry evidenced by the prolific pig painting that first year. “We saw how all the schools, and churches and other people enjoyed painting the pig at Henry’s.”
Wimmer approached Ronnie Black of Crossroads Hobby Shop about putting the pig next to his store. “Ronnie has worked out perfect. He’s a super nice guy. We figured the pig would be visible from Main Street and it wouldn’t bother anybody.”
“I hope people will enjoy this pig as much as they did the first one,” said Black, who isn’t overly concerned that pig painters will paint the parking lot as they did at Henry’s. “I’m hoping to contain it in the small area I have out here. I’m hoping it will be in good fun and doesn’t get out of hand.”
Wimmer said he and McLain wanted to put the new pig near where the first had been. In the grassy plot at the former barbecue place several signs and a small purple plastic piggy bank has been put up by a SHS sophomore Eli Moore, along with signs that say, “Bring back the pig.”
“We’ll probably put up a sign saying ‘Your pig is back, down the street,’ or something like that,” Wimmer added.
The new pig arrived just in time to start another SHS-GHS rivalry that will probably take on a life of its own as the original pig did.
Sports teams, cheerleaders, even members of women’s clubs painted the original West Main Street pig after Glenvar parent Becky McConnell prompted the pig-painting rivalry by encouraging her children and their friends to paint the then-maroon pig with a gray S for Salem High School under cover of darkness during spring break 2009.
Members of the Salem High School girls soccer team promptly took back the pig, and the painting competition was on. Sometimes the pig got painted three or more times in one night.
Barbecue restaurant owner Henry Caldwell, a friend of the McConnell family, got a big kick out of the pig painting, and posted pictures of the paint jobs in his restaurant until it closed in June. He sold the pig to an undisclosed family in Salem, who moved the pig July 22 to his retirement home in their garden. The owners explained in an unsigned note with pig pictures they had named the pig “Memphis.”
McConnell made and presented a photo album to Caldwell, and started a Facebook page featuring the pig. This week she changed her FB profile picture to that of the original pig-painting group the night it all started, she explained, and posted, “Long Live the Pig.”
“I think it is awesome that the community has enjoyed the pig so much and thought enough of the tradition to keep it going,” McConnell said this week. “I hope the new pig continues to bring the community fun and unity through painting a silly old pig.”
Meanwhile, a twin of Henry’s pig, dubbed Miss Piggy, sits largely untouched in front of Bastian’s Barbecue on Apperson. It gets painted at times, but is too far away from the main traffic – and SHS and GHS – to attract much attention, pig painters say.
