Meet Terel, the Dancing Sign Guy

The temperature is nearing 90 degrees, but Terel, or “OG” as everyone knows him, keeps dancing.

Sweat pours down his face, but he gyrates his body to music coming out of his ear buds.

You’ve probably seen him around town. Two days a week, Terel, who would not give his last name, plants himself on Lakeville Street and East Washington Street or D Street where he advertises the services of , twirling a sign and waving to passing cars.

“I get out here and I try to make people smile,” said Terel, who says he’s been working as a professional sign holder throughout the state for the past 18 years. “It’s hard work, but I gotta be out here. Otherwise I’d be on the streets or living under a bridge.”

Petalumans have noticed the never-ending energy Terel exudes and responded in kind, giving him bottles of water or Gatorade or just honking and waving back. 

“He has a happy face,” says Randy Jensen, who owns Super Sonic Smog and who spotted Terel several years ago in Santa Rosa dancing with a sign. “I thought to myself if I ever have a sign guy, I want this one.”

When Jensen moved his shop to his current location three years ago, he went looking to Terel in Santa Rosa. “It took me three weeks, but I finally found him.”

Today, Terel helps bring customers in, with many of them mentioning "the sign guy" when they call or come in.

“I get people telling me every day that he makes them smile,” Jensen said. “He’s always trying to do better, he absolutely enjoys it and it keeps the name of the business on people’s mind.” 

Asked about where he was from, Terel declined to give any personal information, only saying that he had family in Los Angeles and now lived in Santa Rosa. So what tunes keep him dancing all day?

“Gospel, rock n’ roll, a little bit of Johnny Cash,” he said. “Whatever gets me going…And if it makes people smile, then it’s a good thing.”

Have you seen Terel, dancing sign guy?