We recently had a trip down memory lane as we drove along a rural road in our native Ohio and saw a dilipidated barn with the vestiges of an old chewing tobacco ad on one side. It made me think of another slice of Americana from my lifetime - the old Burma-Shave ads on country roads in my childhood.
Many Americans living today know little about Burma-Shave. But mention it to anyone who lived in America from the 1920s into the early sixties, and you will evoke a lot of memories. Burma-Shave was one of the world's first brushless shaving cream manufacturers, and they spawned heavy competition with their product. Burma-Shave signs were the precursor to modern billboard signs and an interesting diversion on long drives. Before the 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. There were hundreds and hundreds of variations on these signs. According to snopes.com Burma-Shave even once promised to send a contest winner to Mars as part of a promotional campaign.
Here are some Burma-Shave slogans for your enjoyment:
SHE KISSED THE HAIRBRUSH
BY MISTAKE
SHE THOUGHT IT WAS
HER HUSBAND JAKE
Burma-Shave
IF YOUR PEACH
KEEPS OUT OF REACH
BETTER PRACTICE
WHAT WE PREACH
Burma-Shave
SAID FARMER BROWN
WHO'S BALD ON TOP
"WISH I COULD
ROTATE THE CROP"
Burma-Shave
SHE PUT A BULLET
THROUGH HIS HAT
BUT HE'S HAD CLOSER
SHAVES THAN THAT
Burma-Shave
A MAN, A MISS
A CAR, A CURVE
HE KISSED THE MISS
AND MISSED THE CURVE
Burma-Shave
HENRY THE EIGHTH
SURE HAD TROUBLE
SHORT-TERM WIVES
LONG-TERM STUBBLE
Burma-Shave
IT WOULD BE MORE FUN
TO GO BY AIR
BUT WE CAN'T HANG
THESE SIGNS UP THERE
Burma-Shave
IF YOU DON'T KNOW
WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE
YOU CAN'T HAVE
DRIVEN VERY FAR
Burma-Shave
Many of their series urged safe driving. Here are some of those:
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
SPEED WAS HIGH
WEATHER WAS NOT
TIRES WERE THIN
X MARKS THE SPOT
Burma-Shave
AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
IT'S A 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
THIRTY DAYS
HATH SEPTEMBER
APRIL, JUNE
AND THE SPEED OFFENDER
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
This is their last slogan, used in 1963:
OUR FORTUNE
IS YOUR SHAVEN FACE
IT'S OUR BEST
ADVERTISING SPACE
Burma-Shave
And an all time favorite:
PASSING SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW
Burma-Shave
I hope that you "oldsters" enjoyed this little trip down nostalgia lane and that you "youngsters" learned a bit of Americana.
Becka and I are having a very enjoyable week with our family in Michigan. We're going to brave the fireworks display tomorrow evening that preceded our accident last summer, figuring the odds are low that the same thing would happen two years in a row.
The week before we arrived, one of our daughter Megan's friends who is a photographer did a "photo shoot" with Drew and another one of Drew's little friends. Here are a few of the best pictures of our little shaver:
In our hometown in Ohio, we were surprised to see among all the closed businesses in the downtown a place we thought for sure would be long gone by now, but it's still open! It's always been called the Smoke House and it's the place where the "hoods" would all hang out and shoot pool back when we lived in Fostoria. Not only is this veritable institution (est. 1907) still open, but it has a new sign. What is wrong with this picture?
I wish all you American readers a Happy 4th of July!
quotation...
Here at the 4th of July, you might find the following quotation interesting....
"American supremacy is the greatest threat to the world today." - George Soros, billionaire benefactor of MoveOn.org
=^..^= =^..^=
Rob
Nostalgia simply isn't what is used to be.
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on Jul 4th, 2008 at 8:51 am
My parents took our family on “educational” vacations–we traveled the USA in the car stopping at “important” sites. We attended both the Seatle World’s Fair and the New York World’s Fair, saw Yosemite Falls, and camped at Yellowstone–driving from Columbus, Ohio. One of the activities that kept us busy was to copy the Burma Shave jingles in a notebook! Our favorite was:
He lit a match
To check gas tank
That’s why they call him
Hairless Frank.
Burma-Shave
on Jul 4th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Those ads are hilarious! Any idea where the name Burma came from?
Another note on the Creation Museum: I was there a couple of times last summer with my parents, and I agree–the place is phenomenal, both indoors and out! A favorite exhibit of mine was the planetarium. It is so refreshing to see a ministry like that upholding the authority of Scripture so strongly in a day when, sadly, even many churches do not.
on Jul 4th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Doodie, I like that one too!
Laura, according to what I found on line, some of the essential oils for Burma-Shave came from the Malay Peninsula and Burma. We, like you, enjoyed the planetarium very much. It shows the vastness of God’s creation, which is nothing compared to the vastness of God Himself.
on Jul 5th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Here’s one I quote to my teenage son:
A PEACH LOOKS GOOD
WITH LOTS OF FUZZ
BUT MAN’S NO PEACH
AND NEVER WAS
Burma-Shave.
on Jul 7th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Actually, it’s bit disappointing to know that they were the ones that quickened the demise of using a shaving brush. There’s nothing quite like using a fine badger hair brush with some high-quality English shaving cream (I like Taylor of Old Bond Street, personally).
See this article for more information: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6886845/
on Jul 7th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I remember seeing those sign along the country roads of Wisconsin as a kid. Even a decade after they closed up shop you could still see the faded signs on the road side. I also remember seeing them for various brands of corn seed along side the corn fields. Being a kid, I didn’t appreciate or fully understand their meanings, but it was just fun trying to read them all while we sped along those two-lane roads, flying over the hills and losing our stomachs in the back of the station wagon . . . Ah, childhood memories. Windows wide open with the wind whipping through (remember the front window wings that opened?). No seat belts, so we just stood up in the back seat so we could see out the front windows. You could really pile a lot of kids in a car if you had a station wagon! Lots of wind back there too because the back windows rolled down.
on Jul 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Being from a more recent generation, I do not “remember” Burma Shave ads, but there were a few I enjoyed while visiting the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan:
If a gift
You must choose,
Give him one
He’ll like to use.
Burma Shave
Broken romance
Stated fully–
She went wild
When he went wooly.
Burma Shave
on Jul 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am
I’m too young to remember Burma-Shave signs, but I still have fond memories of them–my sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Countryman, used to read them to us in class (along with Paul Harvey).
on Jul 10th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I couldn’t resist using one of your pics of Drew for our church nursery schedule this month: http://www.templebaptistathens.com/images/nursery/200807july.pdf
Hope he doesn’t mind being a little famous!
on Aug 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Enjoyed the post on Burma-Shave. My dad had a book that followed the history of the roadside jingles called, The Verse by the Side of the Road, which had us rolling on the floor when we were kids. During a family vacation in Arizona we drove a stretch of Route 66 near Seligman (have you seen “Cars”?) and saw some of the Burma-Shave signs there.
on Aug 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
@Geoff – I’m glad that there’s still some life in the Burma-Shave blog post. I’ve never seen “Cars” but I’ve definitely seen my share of Burma-Shave signs where I grew up in NW Ohio.