Saving Face – Burma Shave

by Bennett Owen

Photo courtesy of mlhradio

As I recall there were three sets of Burma Shave signs out on old highway 91 between Dillon, Montana and Idaho Falls…a stretch of roughly 140 miles surrounded by mountains and sagebrush.  One was about jackrabbits having to pack their own lunch and the other warned motorists to be careful of Mormon crickets, but the one I remember best was printed in white lettering on six red signs that read:

When passing
Schoolyards
Please drive slow
Let the little
Shavers grow
 - Burma Shave

We’ll be resurrecting a few of our favorite Burma Shave Ditties over the next few weeks as our Monday morning engine starter.  The story behind the famous red signs is quite amazing… a company and its product wholly dependent on one simple but ingenious advertising ploy.  Read about it here.

And in the meantime, here’s the Burma Shave premier on My-West:

This cream
Makes the
Gardener’s daughter
Plant her tu-lips
Where she oughter…
 - Burma Shave

These signs
Are not
For laughs alone
The face they save
May be your own
 - Burma Shave

And really, who can resist?  Send us one of your own! Here’s one of ours: