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BS: Burma Shave!
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Subject: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 02 Oct 00 - 04:31 PM MUDCATEERS! Although a little Forum research reveals that there have been a few passing references to Burma Shave here at the Mudcat, apparently-- heavens!!-- there has not yet been a thread entirely devoted to composing new Burma Shaves! UN-BE-FOCKING-LIEVABLE! Scandal, outrage, mortal pity! Why, a world without Burma Shave signs... no wonder we all are a bit lost from time to time! A Mudhood with no Burma Shave... sniff, weep, sniffle... Let's go! Topical or cute, whatever, go for it! For some quick examples, SEE THIS THREAD And why not also suggest a tune to which these can be sung? Then I can steal all your best ideas for our next senior center singalong. Of course I would have to tape that. And auction off the tape, yeah! Burma Shave memories also gladly welcome. ~Susan
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: mousethief Date: 02 Oct 00 - 04:43 PM One hallowe'en I put up mock headstones with the following inscriptions:
RIP Of course none of the kiddies "got it." But some of the parents did.
Alex |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 02 Oct 00 - 05:07 PM A-roadside on my own two feet Blown ditchward by the traffic's speed As Mudlegs overhead do wave Must admit, they clearly need Burma Shave ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 02 Oct 00 - 05:21 PM I only remember one offhand: Pity all the mighty caesars They pulled their whiskers Out with tweezers BURMA SHAVE |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Dharmabum Date: 02 Oct 00 - 05:26 PM Hey Sue,shouldn't that be,UN BE FOLICLY LIEVABLE ? Don't need Burma Shave, I fear, For I am, Folicly impaired. Ron. (9 a.m.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Mbo Date: 02 Oct 00 - 06:10 PM I LOVE Burma Shave signs! I think me and my sisters are the only young people who really know about them!
Why do all the ladies seek Wishful thinking HA HA HA!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: kendall Date: 02 Oct 00 - 06:53 PM Some real ones remembered...Cattle crossing means go slow That old bull is some cows beau.
When spring is sprung and grass is rizz |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: catspaw49 Date: 02 Oct 00 - 06:54 PM Seen on road north of Jackson MI, circa, early sixties....Educational TOO!!!
200,000 people Spaw
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 02 Oct 00 - 07:12 PM hahahaaa!!!!! 9 AM aye. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: CarolC Date: 02 Oct 00 - 08:25 PM When I was a child, the church my family attended had a series of signs along the road like the Burma Shave signs. They said: Here is a church It has no steple Come on in And see all the people I always wanted to put a sign that said "Burma Shave" at the end. Carol |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: CarolC Date: 02 Oct 00 - 08:27 PM Oops! That should have read "steeple". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Amos Date: 02 Oct 00 - 08:35 PM Within this vale, A glen of sin, Ye head grows bald, But not your chin!.... BURMASHAVE Does your husband Misbehave? Grunt and grumble? Rant and rave? Shoo the brute With BURMASHAVE!!! A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: fox4zero Date: 03 Oct 00 - 04:48 AM In my callow youth I heard a "Burma Shave" ditty which was a reference to Carlson's Raiders in WW II. It had the standard 5-line form and the last line was "Burma Road"....I forget the first 4 lines. Larry Parish |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Robby Date: 03 Oct 00 - 09:40 AM Seen along the PA Turnpike and co-opted to promote safe driving: You can do A mile a minute But there is No future In it
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:22 AM BURMA SHAVE |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: rabbitrunning Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:24 AM Our favorites were Don't stick your elbow Out too far It might go home In another car Burma Shave and Twinkle twinkle One eyed car We all wonder Where you are Burma Shave Real Burma Shave fans should look for the book "The Verse By the Side of the Road" which goes in and out of print every so often. I found my copy used. But it lists just about every Burma Shave verse ever used by the company. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Metchosin Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:41 AM My job is Keeping faces clean And nobody knows De stubble I've seen Burma-Shave |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Troll Date: 03 Oct 00 - 12:46 PM Train wrecks are few The reason's clear. The fireman never hugs The engineer. Burma Shave troll...Of course the world could use more huggin' but not while drivin'. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Songster Bob Date: 03 Oct 00 - 01:02 PM I can see a new use for one of the ones I remember: If harmony Is what you crave Get a tuba BURMA-SHAVE How about: If harmony Is what you crave Get to Mudcat! BURMA-SHAVE Other ones I remember, but don't see a Mudcat use for: Anna and Ben Just wouldn't quit. Till he stopped shaving -- Ben-Anna split! BURMA-SHAVE Around the corner, Lickety-split! It's a beautiful car, Wasn't it? BURMA-SHAVE That's about all the originals I can recall. I'll see if I can't think of some new ones, per the challenge above. Bob Clayton |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Mbo Date: 03 Oct 00 - 05:38 PM No good at Mudcat, Bob? Just WAIT till Ben sees that one about him & Ana! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Jim Dixon Date: 03 Oct 00 - 07:17 PM There are numerous web sites devoted to Burma-Shave signs. Just type "Burma Shave" into your favorite search engine to find them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Amos Date: 03 Oct 00 - 09:48 PM Do you think life An awful bore? Can't imagine What it's for? At the Mudcat... Spirits soar!
BURMASHAVE! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Sandy Paton Date: 04 Oct 00 - 12:52 PM From my "Recollection Books" (Seattle) daily almanac: On this day in 1991 -- Leonard C. Odell who wrote 7,000 Burma Shave poems, died at 83.
By the 1950s, when long-distance motorists were lucky to average 30 miles per hour, Odell had 7,000 quintets of signs strung along U.S. roadsides.
The weather was clear
Her chariot
http://sandbox.delphi.com/callahan/wall/burma_shave.html |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Jim Krause Date: 04 Oct 00 - 02:07 PM My fiddle bow's bald For the dancers I'll slave Next Monday I'll rehair it Burma Shave |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 04 Oct 00 - 02:12 PM Thank God for Burma Shave! (Imagine a thread with 7,000 posts though!) ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Wavestar Date: 04 Oct 00 - 02:37 PM You're not the only young ones who know, Mbo - I've never had the pleasure of seeing one first hand, since they don't seem to have stuck around New England or the foothills of Colorado. But I've heard lots of them... Barber shave, Barber sneeze Man dies Next Please... BURMASHAVE -J |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Sandy Paton Date: 04 Oct 00 - 03:37 PM The bearded lady Tried a jar. Now she's a famous Movie star. BurmaShave The only one I can remember off-hand. Probably saw it on a cross-country trip back in the mid to late 30s. Those were Depression days, and I recall seeing a sign on the outhouse behind a "filling station" (as we called gas stations in those days). It read: "Public Relief Station!" That was in Georgia or Alabama, and everyone understood the reference. Grandpa Sandy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 04 Oct 00 - 04:53 PM Grandpa, I fear our minds are more alike than is good for the world.... the one that has been bugging me since I opened this thread, while not a Burma Shave proper, just conjures up the funniest image, not unlike that you just brought into play. So what the hell, out with it:
Here I sit Well I know SOME of you get ALL the puns, but I think I may need more progesterone. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Sandy Paton Date: 04 Oct 00 - 08:26 PM I heard it (or, rather, saw it etched on the wall of a stall somewhere) as: Here I sit, broken hearted Paid a nickel and only f*rted. Price before inflation, so to speak, but it's real folklore and requires only one asterisk! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Mbo Date: 04 Oct 00 - 08:34 PM No, the one in the stall at BLET department at ECU:
Here I sit, as I try to s***t |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 04 Oct 00 - 09:14 PM Sandy, you got me, hands down. I open the thread, see your post, think, uh oh, what if I offended Sandy.... then there ya go!
Ow!!!! My throat!!! Ow!!! LOL does not even BEGIN to describe it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 04 Oct 00 - 10:09 PM Sandy, your version of "paid a nickel" is the one I knew in my misspent youth, back in the late Jurassic. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 26 Aug 01 - 10:57 PM Burma Shave AND music! ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: open mike Date: 27 Aug 01 - 02:50 PM glad to count myself among those who actually remember seeing burma shave signs. We have a series of signs promoting fire safety here which say something like: ashes to ashes, dust to dust, be careful with fire,, or we'll all go bust. c.d.f. we also are plagued with an arsonist who has been busy in the wee hours for several weeks now . not a good thing.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: mousethief Date: 27 Aug 01 - 03:11 PM I remember signs on old Interstate 90 going through North Bend (Washington) saying
I-90 Eventually they did build the freeway to bypass North Bend, so maybe it worked. That was the closest thing I saw to a Burma-shave sign in my childhood. Alex |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Deda Date: 27 Aug 01 - 03:43 PM Seen in Kansas in about 1958 or so: She kissed the hairbrush By mistake She thought it was her husband Jake. BurmaShave. (Wish I could retain information now the way I did then!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Jim Dixon Date: 27 Aug 01 - 06:21 PM Anyone remember autograph book rhymes? OK, they died out before my time, too, but I heard about them somewhere. Kids used to keep autograph books, and they would sign one another's books usually with a little sentimental or funny rhyme. The rhymes were certainly a form of folklore. For example:
Leaves may wither, See this article from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature and Media at the University of Florida. Here's another article. Here's another (Page down). Here's one that shows some humor. Apparently it wasn't only kids. Click here to see a collection made by an Irish Republican prisoner in 1923. Now, here's why I brought this up: it recently dawned on me that autograph book rhymes must have been the original inspiration for Burma-Shave signs. The similarities are too numerous to be a coincidence. They are: 1. Brevity. 2. Rhythm. 3. Rhyme. 4. Content: usually advice or facetious advice. 5. The fact that autograph book rhymes were always followed by a signature, and Burma-Shave rhymes were always followed by the words "Burma-Shave" written in a fancy italic script that resembled a signature. Maybe these similarities were obvious to the people who first saw Burma-Shave signs in 1925. Oddly, although there are many web pages devoted to Burma-Shave signs, I have not been able to find a web site that contains a large collection of autograph-book rhymes. Each site that I have found so far gives excerpts from only one person's book. Also, I have been unable to find any explicit confirmation of my theory. Here's my favorite Burma-Shave page, from The Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design.
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Subject: Folklore: Burma Shave signs From: open mike Date: 04 May 10 - 05:34 PM this should be in B.S. because although they are poetic and lyrical they are not musical. I was reminded of Burma Shave by a shave cream song thread. there is(was?) another thread on Burma Shave signs, but for some reason it is closed... http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26048#536352 see these links for some of the jingles found on road side signs in the 50's and 60's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma1.htm http://burma-shave.org/ http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/burmashave.html also there are some listed in the D.T. http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=9212
[thread re-opened for new contributions]
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 04 May 10 - 05:55 PM I can remember those (just about) as a kid; recall hearing people say things like "We must be near a town - there are the Burma Shave signs". We can easily give this thread a musical element by citing Tom Waits' brilliant Burma Shave song (loads of clips of it on YouTube). I love the slightly surreal twist of Burma Shave being perceived as an actual place, some Neverland of the mind, always just beyond the horizon. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Bill D Date: 04 May 10 - 06:03 PM "Pedro walked home By golly, His bristly chin Was hot-to-Molly" "Twinkle, twinkle One-eyed car. How we wonder Where you are." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: Joe_F Date: 04 May 10 - 10:19 PM A real one: The place To pass On curves You know Is only at The beauty show Burma Shave * One due (IIRC) to Mad Magazine: Her man's whiskers Never faze her He has an Electric razor Why bother with Burma Shave |
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Subject: RE: BS: Burma Shave! From: wysiwyg Date: 05 May 10 - 01:08 PM Stays up top-- folklore. ~S~ |
