SWAN QUARTER — The sign at Pat’s Service Station can often be seen as a forum for community announcements and news.

According to Pat Spencer, the owner of the service station, he started painting messages and news on the sign about 18 years ago when his father, Jimmy Spencer, ran for Hyde County Commissioner.

“We put it out front and painted ‘Vote for Jimmy Spencer’ on the sign and it stayed up during the election,” said Spencer. “He didn’t win, but we just sort of kept the sign out there and painted over it.”

Spencer said he regularly paints the sign to accommodate news of birthdays, birth announcements and other community headlines and functions.

“We did a lady’s birthday on it,” Spencer said. “As everybody would come up to the station to buy gas I would get them to sign it, kind of like it was a birthday card. When her birthday came up we carried it up there to her house and had a big birthday party up there. After that, we brought it back down here (to the station) and people would call me and I would put stuff up there like birthdays, anniversaries and stuff like that.”

Spencer considers one of the best messages he ever painted to be a time when a local family was expecting a baby. He has painted messages for multiple families in the area.

“I put up there: ‘I know a secret I can’t tell, Chuck’s blown a gasket and Paula is starting to swell,’” Spencer said. “The people saw it and they started to call the wrong Paula. They were asking the wrong Paula about if she was expecting and she wasn’t.”

Spencer said that he enjoys painting messages on the sign and looks forward to the community response. He also enjoys adding humorous comments to the sign, especially if he personally knows the individuals that the announcements are about.

“I’ve had a good time with it,” Spencer said. “The Internet is about to take care of that. I think everybody is on Facebook now. It has slowed down a little bit.”

According to Spencer, he welcomes people in the community to stop by and give him content for the sign.

“Whatever is happening, that’s what I try to stick up there,” Spencer said.

Pat’s Service Station is located at 11 Main Street in Swan Quarter.