Burma-Shave Sign on Country SS Road

Lee,

Very nice, I love the look of the street in between the levels of the main lines.  The burma shave signs are classic.

Awesome.

A good one for a train layout:

He tried to cross

As a fast train neared

Death didn't draft him

He volunteered

Burma Shave

Did you make these yourself or did you buy them? If you bought them, where did you get them?    Thanks!

BTW--your road looks good to me!

--Greg

Bowser Shelly sells a set of 6 burma-shave signs.

part #675-16282 for 1941-9 era

I have 2 sets I got in large parts buy.

I saw an HO set from (I think) Life-Like.  I haven't opened them yet but I think there were about 4 or 5 different sequences.

My father had a book full of these verses.  I believe it was called "The Verse by the Side of the Road" or something like that.  I am a little young to remember seeing the signs but I loved the book.

Hi Lee, looks great.

Good luck finding the signs you wont.

Mario E.

Comments:

The book is "Verse By the Side of The Road," by Frank Rowsome.  I've had mine since picking it up at a used book store maybe 30 years ago.  It not only has (or claims to have) all the jingles listed, but it tells the story of Burma shave, the product, the company, the contests for jingles, and how their style of poetry evolved, etc. Wonderful book.  I think Amazon carries new copies.

Did you make these yourself or did you buy them? If you bought them, where did you get them?    Thanks!

The Buick is one of about two dozen SS vehicles I converted to a 1:43 diecast body.  The 18 wheeler uses some SS parts (axles and wheels, pickups) but is basically scratch built.

If you are interested, I have an old, old post on converting SS vehicles to scale die-cast, and Sometime after this new forum I attached two 15 page .ppt documents that have pictures and show how I made them.  

Here are some fact about Burma Shave. They first were placed in Minnisota, Wisconsin and Iowa in the fall of 1925. By 1929 they were nationwide.

The last ones were removed in the early 1960s There were 7000 locations and over 600 different jingles.

A nice article appeared in third quarter 1972 Vol. 10 No. 3 issue of Automotive Quarterly.

If you are not familiar with Automotive Quarterly Magazine, it is a hard bound, high quality publication, without ads You can find back issues at many libraries.

It's a good publication, I agree.

I remember seeing Burma Shave signs as a kid, when we went on vacation each year and drove cross country.  They were special. 

Lee;

If you could re-post this or make a copy available via e-mail, I'd be very interested.

My e-mail is in my profile.

Chuck

P.S.  Outstanding work on that country road.

This is an exclusive club. Only for us "Old Goats". No one else will know what we're talking about. I saw them but my mom had to read them to me, I was only 32.  Don

If you google Burma Shave, at certain sites they will have many of the verses listed. Very entertaining. Some are extremely clever.

I mentioned it to my youngest son (30) and his reply was "Isn't it called Myanmar now?"

Lee...  Thanks for the pointer to the book.  I may try to pick up a copy.

Re: "Burma" vs. "Myanmar"...  At least your son is educated enough to know that.  A lot of kids today are really ignorant about geography.  This did give me a chuckle though.

I remember hearing some time ago that all the signs were removed by the early sixties but I thought I saw some in the 70's or early 80's.  Maybe someone either left up (and reconditioned) some originals or put up some reproductions.  I know if I had a big hunk of land along a highway I'd be tempted.

Regards,

Eric S.

Saline, MI

I definitely remember seeing them when I was a kid along U.S. 60 between Louisville

and Lexington in Ky.  Seems like I periodically see some reproduced for other advertising purposes in other locations, and what appear to be originals put up along highway/property lines by land owners with interests in the past... I think there is a series outside Ft. Wayne, Ind.  Some of the big outdoor museums have collections

of them, such as one in Nebraska.

Greenfield Village put a set of 1:1 scale Burma Shave signs (not sure if they were repros or not) along the road that passes along the side of it during a car show weekend last summer.  I thought it looked pretty cool.

One reason Burma Shave signs were removed (besides cost for the company, and I suppose more and more electric shaver users) was that it was determined the signs were causing car accidents. People were busy reading the signs, which on for a stretch, and weren't paying attention to the road.

Signs similar to these can still be found in Illinois along I-74 between Peoria and Bloomington.  There are signs elsewhere as well as I've seen them several times.  

The one on I-74, I believe speaks to the right to bear arms and another is Biblical in nature.  

If I'm not mistaken, there is also one along I-94 in Michigan on the west side of the state.

The safest rule no if's and butts is to drive like everyone else is nuts!

...was our family favorite in the 1950s as we would drive from New Orleans up to northern Michigan in the summers. We loved 'em!

Reading, Pa has  WWII airshow every June and they set up a few sets of Burma Shave signs on the roadside heading to the airfield.

--Greg

I may have seen these.  Do you remember approximately where on I-94 in Michigan?

If anyone is driving across Arizona on Interstate 40, you can see some new Burma Shave signs if you take the old Route 66 detour between Seligman and Kingman.  They were placed by a local group.  

You won't miss much on the particularly un-scenic parallel stretch of I-40, and, besides seeing the Burma Shave signs, you can dally at Peach Springs or the west end of Crozier Canyon to watch BNSF trains.

Tom

That's a nice stretch of Route 66.  Nice to know someone is maintaining a few Burma Shave signs somewhere.

There are still old Burma Shave signs along road sides in New Hampshire. The road from Ossipee to Moultonborough for one has a set.

Here's 4 pages of slogans. http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma1.htm

I remember seeing a set on a family road trip in the early 1960's.

As to the motto above, I follow  a similar rule -- assume everyone else will make a boneheaded move, and hope and pray they're making the same assumption about me.

I loved the Burma Shave signs too as a kid.  There is still a Mail Pouch Tobacco barn near Beech Creek PA, north of State College.  The only one I have seen in a long time.  

Lee, Outstanding job on the layout with the signs and the country road. 

I love the yellow TR-3 on the used car lot. Had a black '58 TR-3 from 66-70.  

It's moved.  Top is the picture of Nigel's British Motorcars (Nigel is the one stand in front of the front door, looking with pride at the Jag) where the yellow TR-3 was: you can barely make the TR-3 in the distance at the very right side farther back in the top photo.  The second photo is a close of of the yellow TR-3 - its owner and a fellow British sports car nut with a 3-liter Healey have stopped to chat.

Much more complicated than that:  both terms are ethnic, and the various ethnicities involved aren't necessarily in accord as to how they should be used.  The Burmese don't like being associated with the group which has renamed the country.  Further, "Myanmar" is apparently a political term, while "Burma" can still refer to the region.

My favorite Burma Shave jingles:

In school zones

Take it slow          this is the one on on layout

Let our little

Shavers Grow

Nary a man

Is still alive

Who passed on curves

At Seventy-five

He had the ring

He had the flat

But she felt his stubble

And that was that

She drove her chariot

At eighty per . . .

They scraped up

What had Ben Hur