History lesson

[dun]

Those Grand Old Burma Shave Road Signs

TRAINS DON'T WANDER
ALL OVER THE MAP
'CAUSE NOBODY SITS
IN THE ENGINEER'S LAP
Burma Shave

SHE KISSED THE HAIRBRUSH
BY MISTAKE
SHE THOUGHT IT WAS
HER HUSBAND JAKE
Burma Shave

Remember these?
For those who never saw any of the Burma Shave signs, here is a quick lesson in our history of the 1930s and '40s. Before there were interstates, when everyone drove the old 2 lane roads, Burma Shave signs would be posted all over the countryside in farmers' fields. They were small red signs with white letters. Five signs, about 100 feet apart, each containing 1 line of a 4 line couplet...... and the obligatory 5th sign advertising Burma Shave, a popular shaving cream.
Here are more of the actual signs:

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD
TO GAIN A MINUTE
YOU NEED YOUR HEAD
YOUR BRAINS ARE IN IT
Burma Shave

DROVE TOO LONG
DRIVER SNOOZING
WHAT HAPPENED
NEXT IS NOT AMUSING
Burma Shave

BROTHER SPEEDER
LET'S REHEARSE
ALL TOGETHER
GOOD MORNING, NURSE
Burma Shave

CAUTIOUS RIDER
TO HER RECKLESS DEAR
LET'S HAVE LESS BULL
AND MORE STEER
Burma Shave

SPEED WAS HIGH
WEATHER WAS NOT
TIRES WERE THIN
X MARKS THE SPOT
Burma Shave

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE
OF PAUL FOR BEER
LED TO A WARMER
HEMISPHERE
Burma Shave

AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN'T IT?
Burma Shave

NO MATTER THE PRICE
NO MATTER HOW NEW
THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE
IN THE CAR IS YOU
Burma Shave

A GUY WHO DRIVES
A CAR WIDE OPEN
IS NOT THINKIN'
HE'S JUST HOPIN'
Burma Shave

AT INTERSECTIONS
LOOK EACH WAY
A HARP SOUNDS NICE
BUT IT'S HARD TO PLAY
Burma Shave

BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL
EYES ON THE ROAD
THAT'S THE SKILLFUL
DRIVER'S CODE
Burma Shave

THE ONE WHO DRIVES
WHEN HE'S BEEN DRINKING
DEPENDS ON YOU
TO DO HIS THINKING
Burma Shave

CAR IN DITCH
DRIVER IN TREE
THE MOON WAS FULL
AND SO WAS HE.
Burma Shave

And my all time favorite:
PASSING SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW
Burma Shave

Do these bring back any old memories?
If not, you're merely a child.
If they do - then you're old as dirt...
LIKE ME!

and I remember:

Don't stick your elbow
Out so far
It may go home
In another car.
BURMA SHAVE

 

[MillIronQH]

Yep I remember them. from when I was a pup. I wonder if anyone remembers window mounted air conditioners or cool water coming from a canvas bag hug outside the car?Z

 

[flaboy-]

Shoot when I left home our house didn't have air conditioning (in Fla) or color TV.

Yes, Dun I do remember those signs.

 

[llcupit]

Dun I must be old as dirt then. :lol:

 

[MillIronQH]

Shoot when I left home our house didn't have air conditioning (in Fla) or color TV.

Yes, Dun I do remember those signs.

I was talking about car mounted window ACs. They used water instead of freon to cool.Z

 

[aplusmnt]

Shoot when I left home our house didn't have air conditioning (in Fla) or color TV.

Yes, Dun I do remember those signs.

I was talking about car mounted window ACs. They used water instead of freon to cool.Z

before my time but didn't they make one you could put ice in to blow cool air?

 

[MillIronQH]

Yes Sir and the really fancy ones had a wind powered water pump that would pump the water over a pad like in the house units. That would usually last from one fill up to the next.

My Dad borrowed two of them one year when I was about 7/8 for a trip to El Paso. Hung them on the passenger side windows of our 47/48 Plymouth and put one of those steel Coleman ice chest in the back floorboard with a block of ice in it for cokes and baloney an such. Oh and two spare tires in the trunk. Read a lot of Burmashave sign on that trip.Z

 

[Bullbuyer]

Just a side question here - with all of this neat advertising, how is it that Burma Shave isn't still in business? Or is it just not available in my area?

 

[dun]

Burma-Shave was a United States brand of brushless shaving cream famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous poems on sequential highway billboard signs.

Burma Shave was introduced in 1925 by the Burma-Vita company, owned by Clinton Odell. At its peak, it was the second-highest selling shaving cream in the United States. But sales declined in the 1950s, and in 1963 the company was sold to Phillip Morris. The signs were removed at that time. The brand decreased in visibility and eventually became the property of the American Safety Razor Corporation. In 1997 the American Safety Razor Corporation reintroduced the Burma Shave brand as a nostalgic shaving soap and brush kit — ironically, the original Burma Shave was one of the first brushless shaving creams.

 

[sidney411]

Window units for a car LOL! I've never even heard of such a thing. How funny, I would love to see one of those!

 

[dun]

Window units for a car LOL! I've never even heard of such a thing. How funny, I would love to see one of those!

Yah, we used the old 4/50 AC. The new car a 38 plymouth 4 door wouldn;t do much over 50. On most roads you would need a bomb sight to go that fast

dun

 

[NamVet_Farmer44]

Must've seen thousands of them back when I was trucking, they was one of the only things that kept me awake while I was rolling down the road sometimes...kept me awake sometimes, but other times they made me run off the road from trying to read them all :lol:

 

[NamVet_Farmer44]

Just remembered one of them signs that I always liked

goes something like this

On turns ahead,
Remember Sonny,
That rabbits foot,
Didn't save the bunny

 

[Alice]

Just remembered one of them signs that I always liked

goes something like this

On turns ahead,
Remember Sonny,
That rabbits foot,
Didn't save the bunny

Oh my gosh! That's cold...and it cracked me up. I'm still laughing.

Alice

 

[Alice]

AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN'T IT?
Burma Shave

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!

OK, I'm done.

Alice

 

[MillIronQH]

I have heard that along some of the old historic parts of 66 in Az that some of those signs have been replaced.Z