Teen road trips a big adventure
Treks to the swimming hole included reciting favourite ad slogans
It’s Tuesday. Story time from the truck stop. Remembering when life was simpler, and a whole lot more fun, especially if you were a teenager growing up in the excited states in the early 1960s as I was. It may sound like eons ago, but to me, it seems like only yesterday. It’s still in vivid colour to me, and I hope that comes across to you. The scene: Upstate New York, and what is now referred to as a “piece of Americana.” Burma Shave road signs. Small red signs with white letters, placed on a short post, and usually consisted of five signs about 100 feet apart, and each sign contained one line of a four-line couplet. The fifth and final sign and line was the obligatory advertising of Burma Shave, a then popular men’s shaving cream.
These signs were everywhere along side of the highways in the 1930s through 1960s. Then came the Eisenhower backed interstate highway system, and Burma Shave signs were relegated to the old fashioned two- and three-lane back roads.
Me? I used to go to my favourite swimming hole at Lake Cazenovia every chance I could catch a ride. We’d go along highways 92 and 20 out of Manlius, New York. Even though Burma Shaving cream was no longer No. 1 in the early 1960s, those signs were made to last, and they were changed quite frequently.
We teens memorized them all, or so we thought … we’d shout them out, amid howls of laughter. Never a boring moment. They were catchy. They’re still stuck in my brain.
Now that I am no longer a teenager I can still remember quite of few of those brain twisters.
Brother Speeder … Let’s Rehearse … All Together … Good Morning Nurse. Burma Shave
Drove Too Long … Driver Snoozing … What Happened Next … Is Not Amusing. Burma Shave.
Speed Was High … Weather Was Hot … Tires Were Thin … X Marks The Spot. Burma Shave.
Don’t Stick Your Elbow … Out So Far ... It May Go Home … In Another Car… Burma Shave.
A Guy Who Drives … A Car Wide Open … Is Not Thinking … He’s Just Hoping. Burma Shave.
The One Who Drives … When He’s Been Drinking … Depends On You … To Do His Thinking. Burma Shave.
At Intersections … Look Each Way … A Harp Sounds Nice … But It’s Hard To Play. Burma Shave.
No Matter The Price … No Matter How New … The Best … Safety Device … In The Car Is You. Burma Shave.
Both Hands On the Wheel … Eyes On The Road … That’s The Skillful … Driver’s Code. Burma Shave.
And my all-time favourite from those carefree days was the one that didn’t make too much sense, but as a teenager back then, not much did.
Trains Don’t Wander … All Over The Map…’Cause Nobody’s Sits … In The Engineer’s lap. Burma Shave.
I’m smiling all over again, remembering those swimming days at the lake and all of us footloose teenagers memorizing those signs but not caring too much about the content. If you really think about it, it was one slick form of advertising. It was in your face. The signs were catchy, effective and clean as the environment of the day.
The one scary part of this road trip down memory lane was the fact, back then, Highway 92 was a threelane highway with the passing lane in the middle. A lot of friends died in that lane, regardless of the Burma Shave signs. That’s one part of my teenage years that still haunts me to this day. Yep. “The harp sounds nice, but is hard to play.”