If you are of a certain age, you might remember Mike’s Bar-B-Q on Rossville Boulevard.
Today, the address – 4211 Rossville Blvd. – is the location of a Dollar General store. But in the mid-20th century, it was home to the “dancing pig,” a neon sign outside a popular drive-in restaurant that still animates the memories of people who grew up in the Rossville area in the 1950s and 1960s.
“It was pink,” remembers Essie Bearden Morelock, “and every time my dad drove down Rossville Boulevard, I would look for the little pig.”
When this vintage photo of Mike’s Bar-B-Q – part of the ChattanoogaHistory.com archive – was posted on a Rossville High School nostalgia page on Facebook this week, the response was swift.
“I remember an advertisement that they had on their sign once ‘Wanted, man to BBQ,'” posted Sandra Goodner Johnson. “Although I knew what they meant, I’m sure there were a lot of people that had names of people that they would like to BBQ.”