As an octogenarian, YEP, I remember them.

Nah, there is nothing wrong with being young that age and experience will not help.

Burma Shave

For those who never saw the Burma Shave signs, here is a quick lesson in the history of the 1930's, '40's and '50's.

Before there were interstates, when everyone drove on two-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, four containing 1 line of a 4 line couplet ... and the 5th sign advertising Burma Shave shaving cream.


Here are some of the actual signs:

DON'T STICK YOUR ELBOW
OUT SO FAR
IT MAY GO HOME
IN ANOTHER CAR.
Burma Shave

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

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 A LITTLE 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

PASSING SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW
Burma Shave

And STUCKY'S Pecan Shoppes.

__________________
NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

"Do not pass
While on a slope
Unless you have
A periscope"
Burma Shave

Does you husband
rant and rave,
shoot the brute some
Burma Shave

Herein lies
Elmer Tush,
tickled to death
with a shaving brush
Burma Shave

No, I don't remember them as they were before my time.

Since you use "R U" for "Are you," I'd be surprised if you're old enough to have seen Burma Shave signs.

Not that there's anything wrong with being young.

If U R old enough to remember Burma Shave, U R old enough to not use abbreviations like a pre-teen girl. K? LOL.

Edit: mjr types faster than me.

Yep I can remember the Burma Shave signs. And Orange Crush in the brown bottle, and white tennis balls, and only girls and pirates wearing earrings and ....oh hell it sucks to get old.

And anyway, these days they call it Myanmar Shave.

They used to be all over the place here in the fifties. I remember driving with my dad and he would see the first sign and finish the rhyme. Took all the fun out of it for me.

I think it's KTHXBY...

Dim your lights
behind a car
let folks see
how bright you are!
Burma Shave

__________________
Charles Randolph

I'm too young to know them... But those are pretty good!

__________________
- The Federalist #46 -

I always used to watch for them when riding from Springfield Ohio to Marion Ohio up Route 4 going to visit my Grandparents.

__________________
Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

Oh yeah, I remember them. Also the old grape sodas that quenched the thirst so well. Hot dogs 5 for a dollar and a Krystal burger for 12 cents and a lot of other stuff but I digress.

Just my two cents.

He lit a match
to check the tank
that's why they call him
skinless Frank
Burma Shave

The whiskers on
his cookie's map
that's what made
poor Ginger snap
Burma Shave

Naw, they were before my time.

__________________
Luke 22:36

Dont forget the other barns in the area.

"See Rock City"

Ben and Anna
Had a hit
With something called
A ben-anna split.
Burma shave

Oh yea great signs, remember the barns signs for Mail Pouch chewing tobacco.

__________________
Carpriver.

HARLEY WARRECK painted or touched up more than 20,000 Mail Pouch barn signs in his 55 years of painting them.

He passed away in 2000.

Mail Pouch stopped adverising on bans in the 1970's, but farmers paid him privately until 1995,

when the GOVERNMENT STOPPED tobacco advertising.

He used to paint 2 or 3 a day, 6 days a week.

His pension, a Carton of Mail Pouch every month from SWISHER.

__________________
NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

Am I old enough to remember? Thankfully NO!!

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

As an octogenarian (Over 80 for the uninformed) YES, I remember lots of them.

They are all great jingles.

I remember Dixie Peach Pomade, Brylcreem, Vitalis but not Burma Shave, I guess that is why I'm still here posting.

__________________
Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Remember High Karate? EYAAA!!!

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

No I don't but I still have a bottle of Canoe and English Leather, am I in?

__________________
Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Here you go.
HI- KARATE - YouTube

__________________
Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

I do remember it.

__________________
Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

I do remember Burma Shave signs...and See Rock City

Interesting note (or maybe not), when I was working in Batavia, IL I needed some shave soap and I went to the drugstore to buy some and they had Burma Shave shave soap. I bought it and used it, but later I looked online for Burma Shave and it was one of the first canned shaving creams. Back in the '50s they didn't make cakes of shaving soap, they made canned shaving cream.

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Luke 22:36

Sure am old enough to remember those Burma Shave signs. It was a great time-consumer on the drive to our grandmother's place. I do not know how many dozens sets of signs we counted on that 150-mile drive. Rocking-chair memories now.....

__________________
GA Carry member
Vietnam Vet

A little dab 'il do ya

You'll wonder where the yellow went

Hey kids it's Howdy Doody time

__________________
Back to back World War Champs.

Mr Green Jeans,

FROGGIE,FROGGIE,FROGGIE.

Princess Summer/Fall/Winter?Spring.

Don Diego de la Vega? ----------Zorro?

77 Sunset Strip

Bosco Chocolate Syrup.

Flavor Straws.

__________________
NRA Pistol/Rifle Inst. RSO

I have a book about the Howdy Doody show and the cast. It seems that Princess was very accommodating to the cast members, no matter what time of the year it was.

Hi, I'm Buster Brown, I live in a shoe, this is my dog Tige, he lives there too.

Sears catalog in the outhouse.
Some things old are not worth remembering.
Blessings

__________________
TEXAS, by GOD

We saw a lot of Burma Shave signs while crossing the country twice in the
1960s.
One I recall is:

Though we sold
A million others
We just can't sell
Those cough drop brothers.
Burma Shave.

The cough drop brothers were the Smith Brothers, I think.
They used to come in a small white box with pics of two guys with big black beards on the
front.

"Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!

__________________
Back to back World War Champs.

Yes we both remember them.

I am old enough to have used it. Do they still sell it?

In 1944 I went from Asheville NC to Seattle WA, and the Burma Shave signs kept me amused the whole time. I was 11 at the time. Sorry I don' remember any of the verses, but that's not the only thing I've forgotten.

If you lived in the Midwest and remember Burma Shave, you probably recall Wall Drug. Reading the Burma shave signs was great fun.

The really depressing signs were from an auto insurance company that posted signs with an "X" where someone was killed. I recall a spot with 5 or 6 signs where a bad one happened.

Yeah they do. I just saw the commercial today.

1960s BURMA SHAVE COMMERCIAL - YouTube

And remember this...........????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFcE_hMJciQ

Or this...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VatHhvEG0Ms

I raise cows

They eat hay

Don't throw trash

On the right of way

Berma Shave



Art

As a middle aged Baptist that remembers a lot of old stuff too, I have to ask "what does our religion have to do with this?"



Man, I simply couldn't resist. Too much Redd Foxx growing up?

Congrats on surviving yours and even more astounding, your children's youth!

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GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

Yup, I remember the Burma-Shave and Wall Drug signs along US highway#20 thru northern Illinois and Iowa. Now, how many remember Sky King, The Green Hornet, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry on the radio after school?
OldFart

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mr mom
Fire Chief, Retired

I always looked forward to seeing them on family vacation trips, which included Wall Drug, BTW. A couple of the Burma Shave signs I remember are:

She kissed the hairbrush
By mistake;
She thought it was
Her husband, Jake
Burma Shave

In this vale
Of toil and sin
Your head grows bald
But not your chin.
Burma Shave

__________________
Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

Hai Karate was AWFUL. Nothing but advertising.

"Every Bottle Sterilized"

The Burma Shave signs made the longs drives more fun. I still remember driving to Florida with my family and seeing the chain gangs tolling on the side of the highway in the southern state. Remember when we had like 12 or 15 westerns on in prime time and staying up late until the TV stations went off the air. How about when only a few gas stations were open from Sat night until Monday mornings.

In Florida, on the Turnpike they have signs like that
promoting Sunpass, the pre-paid toll system.
Some of them are quite amusing.

Stu

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NRA Benefactor/Cert Instructor