For those who never saw any of the Burma Shave signs, here is a quick lesson in our history of the 1930's, 40s and '50's. 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, (Isn't funny, back then it seemed we would never get to the next sign, at the speed Dad was driving? Now days you would have to be a speed reader!) 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 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

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!

 

CATTLE CROSSING MEANS GO SLOW
THAT OLD BULL
IS SOME COWS BEAU
BURMA SHAVE

I remember the signs but the Burma Shave was probably gone off the shelves by the time I started shaving.

 

I do remember these from the mid 60's but I know they go back much farther

 

A car a curve
a man a miss
he kissed the miss
and missed the curve
burma-shave

 

These bring back so many memories traveling to CA in '53. Thanks for the post.

 

There's a household on Boulevard Road here in Olympia that regularly posts signs like the old Burma Shave ads. It's always fun to drive by there and see what he has posted as he changes them regularly. It's so fun to enjoy the past like that!

Randy C.

 

Is that Olympia, WA? Not in WA anymore...lived in Kent for 18 years.

 

As I have told my wife many times, " we can't live in the 50's or 60's but we can sure visit". Those were great times.

 

According to Wikipedia, the Burma-Shave company was sold in 1963 to Philip Morris, and the signs were taken down at that time. To be old enough to remember seeing actual advertisements by Burma-Shave along the side of the road and not just re-creations or signs put up for nostalgia and all, you pretty much have to be no younger than your early 60s.

 

How long do you think those signs would last if they were put up today and I am not talking about collectors taking them?

 

I'm only 55 (yeah only ) and as a military brat travelling across country I saw plenty of these signs. I've seen many up well past 1963 too. Mostly in the midwest, maybe all in the midwest.

 

I'm 68 and the Burma Shave signs was part of what us kids looked for when traveling the two lanes roads with mom and dad. It helped pass the time. We also watched for out of state license numbers and picked car colors and the kid with the most of one color won. Are we there yet huh dad are we there yet, how much longer huh dad how much longer, I have to pee.............

 

Just hold it Pat

 

I am reminded of some bathroom graffiti I saw on a family trip out west back in the mid 70s:

When days were old
And knights were bold
And toilets weren't invented
You left your load
Beside the road
And walked away contented