Northwest Classic Chevy Club - Burma Shave Signs

Please visit Sentimental Productions for a series of videos, the Americana Series, that celebrates America's wonderful past through story- telling, video, images, and music including one called "The Signs and Rhymes of Burma Shave" which traces the story of one of America's most unique and effective advertising campaigns.

For those of you who never saw the Burma Shave signs, here is a quick lesson in our history of the 1930s and '40s. Before the interstates, when everyone drove the old two-lane roads, Burma Shave signs would be posted all over the countryside on fence posts by 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 shaving cream. Here are a few 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 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*
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*