Back to B.C. by Johnny Hart for July 15, 2017

“Bryl cream/A little dab’ll do yaBryl cream/The gals’ll all pursue ya”Oops, wrong brand. “Try Burma Shave”

Nah… if he had invented shaving cream, there would be one more sign at the end…

“Burma-Shave”

I saw the last of those signs driving down Route 66 a few years ago. They’re the ONLY part of that road that’s not a tourist trap anymore.

I don’t recall seeing those signs since the late 50s in Oregon.

I wonder if the organization that does Rte 66 publicity maintains and replaces these signs.

This made me chuckle, but actually, Burma Shave poems were not limericks – they were four lines, with the second and fourth lines rhyming :

Said farmer Brown

Who’s bald on top

Wish I could

Rotate the crop.

Cattle crossing

Means go slow

That old bull

Was some cow’s beau.

As a youngster I loved seeing those very inventive signs along the byways. I was always sorry when they disappeared. But in the 1980’s, I found the following booklet. The Verse By The Side of The Road, edited by Frank Rowsome, Jr, with drawings by Carl Rose, Stephen Green Press, 1965 and reprinted through 1981. Contains the history and several hundred of those very challenging jingles. A great read.

A limerick by DKram

There was a young man named Paul

Who, in the saddle rode tall

His habit was trim

But there was a low limb

And the horse returned to the stall

\\//_

Henry the Eighth

Sure had trouble

Short term wives

Long term stubble

Burma Shave

The Burma Shave signs disappeared a long time ago, but Reminisce Magazine sponsored a revival of the signs in all 50 states about 10 years back, advertising their magazine, of course. I don’t know if any of those survive. Perhaps Reiman Publications still keeps a list of where the signs were put up.

My poetic postsRun on and on.I use line breaksBut then they’re gone.Can anyone tell meHow to saveMy post’s line breaksSo they look like Burma Shave?

Peter’s meter

doesn’t scan

like sings we saw

from our old van.

Peter was probably from Nantucket.

Around the corner

lickety split

it’s a beautiful car

wasn’t it?

The Burma Shave ad campaign was a success as an eye catcher. It was the only roadside ads we actually searched for, even kids would look out the back window and untangle the signs meant for the other direction. (Unfortunately, the product didn’t sell well)

One of my favorites:

“A man who passes

On hills and curves,

Isn’t a man

With iron nerves.

He’s CRAZY!

BURMA SHAVE”

In this world

of toil and sin,

your head grows bald

but not your chin.

Burma Shave

A peach looks good

with lots a fuzz,

but man’s no peach

and never was.

Burma Shave

man’s is a contraction for man is, don’t blame me. I didn’t write it.

There once was a gas man named Peter

Who was hunting around for the meter

Struck a leak with his light

He arose out of sight

And for anyone who happens to be reading this poem, it also completely destroyed the meter.