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2003-09-26 - 6:40 a.m.

Highway Poetry

Dinah Doesn’t

Treat Him Right

But If He’d

Shave

Dinah-Mite!

Burma-Shave

Yesterday’s entry about bumper stickers brought back memories of the rhymes of the Burma-Shave signs. Remember those?

Before I Tried It

The Kisses

I Missed

But Afterward-Boy!

The Misses I Kissed

Burma-Shave

By 1966 all the little red and white signs were gone from all American highways, so if you were born after that you probably don’t remember them. But I sure do. Every summer in the late 50s and early 60s we took a summer vacation. We had a Ford Country Squire Station Wagon; Dad would load the wagon, making room for a play area for me in the rear cargo area, and our little family of three would make the cross-country trek to our destination. Disneyland. Gettysburg and Washington, D.C. The Badlands of South Dakota. Virginia Beach. The Blue Ridge Mountains. San Diego. Tijuana.

I was content with my playthings in the rear of the wagon for only so long, then my parents had to find ways to entertain me during the long drives. We would count brown cows, or black horses, or play an alphabet game with the billboards. But what we looked forward to most were the Burma-Shave signs. We’d drive for miles scouting the roadside for the little placards, finally spot a series and shout out the rhyme. Then it was back to driving the long road and looking for the next Burma-Shave break

On our trip to The Rocky Mountains in the mid-sixties we watched for the road-side rhymes, but they were gone from the highways in Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.

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