Burma Shave Revisited


Last month’s article brought back memories, to when I was a little kid we would read the signs when we traveled. My dad used to take us to the small town of Centerville Indiana, for our haircuts. It was about ten miles from our house and haircuts were only fifty cents. I was about seven years old and my brother was five. We would pass a sign that read:

Listen birds
These signs
Cost money
Roost awhile
And don’t
Get funny

As young kids we didn’t know what that meant, I asked my dad, he replied ‘it means don’t poop on them’. We laughed and laughed and every time we went for a haircut we would read that and laugh, because now we knew what it meant. – Ray Y.


Here are some other Burma Shave signs:

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 HOPING
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