Signs posted by pig-painters soon after the Henry's Memphis BBQ pig's departure in June.

Pig-painters in Salem and Glenvar, get ready, because business owners on the corner of Bruffey Street are working on bringing the recently-defunct tradition back to West Main.

“Everybody wants that pig back,” said John Mclain, owner of Elite Towing.

He wanted to bring it back “because there are so many people, [at] the high school especially” that painted the cement pig in front of Henry’s Memphis BBQ. He also thinks it’s great advertisement, and he said the pig at Bastian’s BBQ on Apperson is just too far away for most.

The pig “gives the cheerleading teams something to do, you have the churches […] it’s almost like a billboard.”

As of noon Tuesday, August 31, Mclain was on his way to Boones Mill to purchase the pig after he cleared the placement with Ronnie Black of Crossroads Hobby Shop. It will go right out in front of the store. Mclain hopes to have the pig up and ready for anyone to paint by Wednesday afternoon, he said.

“It’s a big old pig, maybe the same size or maybe a little bigger than the one at Henry’s,” he said.

The pig was painted beginning in April 2009, and it was taken away when Henry’s Memphis BBQ closed its doors in June 2010.