Happy Vernal Equinox to everyone north of the equator, (and Autumnal for those south of it).

"Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
Where last year’s
Careless drivers is.
   —Burma Shave!"

Patricia/AgDrgn

Really! Cool! (I know you hate the word. But I’m a user of it, sorry). My sis-in-law has a book devoted to the Burma Shave poem/advertisements and their history. Anyway, this particular one I learned from my Dad. I think, but am not sure, I might have seen a couple of them along the highway when I was a toddler. I have memories back to when I was two and three. Could be from then.

I’m glad you enjoyed the poem!

Patricia/AgDrgn

Bawl! I don’t have the book, but next time I visit them, I’ll copy down a few.

Patricia/AgDrgn

I thought the poem was cool too!  But I’ve never heard of Burma-Shave before.  Or maybe I just forgot.  Was it only in the US?

Here’s one I think of whenever I hear someone yell out, "Hey!"

Straw is cheaper,
Grass is free,
Buy a farm
and get all three!

;D

-Tim

That Burma-Shave ad reminded me of a poem (perhaps more accurately, ‘pome’) learned from my mother:

Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where
The flowers is!

Here I was expecting something like the The Cuckoo Song—you know, that anonymous poem from circa 1250 that begins

SUMER is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu—
Sing cuccu!

(for the whole poem, click on http://www.bartleby.com/101/1.html)
and what did I get—Burma Shave ! First I was disappointed, but upon a closer examination of the latter, I realised it was more or less a modernisation and adaptation of the former. So can it go….

Henri

PS : Remember those signs, too. Used to laugh my head off (got by the censor that time !)....

Burma Shave was some kind of shaving cream. Company was owned by a single family and they put up small red road signs. But when speeds got fast no one read the signs and they never managed to recapture the market. At least this is what I understand.

Patricia/AgDrgn

Here’s a nice (I refuse to give up on that word!) website called The Burma Shave Phenomenon.

For a sample…

[center]IF YOU DON’T KNOW
WHOSE SIGNS THESE ARE
YOU CAN’T HAVE
DRIVEN VERY FAR
BURMA-SHAVE[/center]

-Tim

Back in the 1960’s Mad Magazine had a spoof on  littering.  The only one I can remember is a Burma Shave version:

Empty beer cans
Shining Bright
Safely Light
The way at night.
Burma Shave

It was accompanied by a cartoon of a car’s headlights reflecting off of the discarded cans by the side of the road.

Spring has sprung
the grass has riz
I wonder where
The Birdies Iz?

[quote author=rosewoman link=board=omni;num=1048208609;start=0#14 date=03/27/03 at 16:49:34]I wonder where
The Birdies Iz?

RW, they just arrived here in Portland in full force! Barn swallows, hummingbirds, etc.  Maybe they just haven’t made it to Seattle yet…

inanna

Spring has sprung
fall has fell
winter’s here
and it’s colder than

usual

[quote author=rosewoman link=board=omni;num=1048208609;start=15#16 date=03/28/03 at 10:53:21]Spring has sprung
fall has fell
winter’s here
and it’s colder than

[...]

usual

Hahahaha! I’m very tired so it took me a moment to realize the word should rhyme with "fell" not "here." Once I did, I got the joke. Thanks.

Patricia/AgDrgn