Burma-Shave signs without rhyme?

[Espee]

These six signs are among the roadside decor on display in our local example of the "Roadhouse Grill" chain:
IT'S NOT
HOW FAST OR SLOW
YOU DRIVE
STOP YOUR CAR
TO COUNT YOUR SHEEP
Burma-Shave

Do you suppose these are newly-made "Antiques" from someone who invented their own message, not realizing there's supposed to be a rhyme?
Or did two sets get mixed up, leaving some other place with a similarly goofed-up message consisting of the leftovers?

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's an unnatural fusion of two different jingles:

HIGHWAYS ARE
NO PLACE TO SLEEP
STOP YOUR CAR
TO COUNT YOUR SHEEP

and

IT'S NOT HOW FAST
OR SLOW YOU DRIVE
THE QUESTION IS
HOW YOU ARRIVE

According to "Verse From The Side of the Road," the definitive collection of Burma Shave jingles, both of those are from 1948.

 

[Espee]

I THOUGHT it might be like that! (I had that same book at one time.)
So someplace else they may be displaying:
HIGHWAYS ARE
NO PLACE TO SLEEP
THE QUESTION IS
HOW YOU ARRIVE

(which may be even worse)

 

[BlueTrain]

My favorite from that book is:
I just joined
The young man said
A nudist club
Is my face red?
No, I use
Burma-Shave

I do remember Burma-Shave signs but none of the words. I missed the street cars in my home town by just a few years, I think. I wonder if anyone called them "trolleys?" But I rode the street car in Washington, DC, on my first visit here.

 

[LizzieMaine]

They're still called trolleys in Boston. Ride the Green Line, or the Ashmont-Mattapan Red Line, and it's 1945 all over again.

(In addition to advertising on road signs, Burma Shave advertised for years on trolley ad cards, with pictorial depictions of their roadside jingles.)

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I remember one from just outside my family's little hometown of Kenedy, TX.

If you neglect
Your face each day
Here is what
We have to say:
Burma Shave

On a long road trip in the 50s you'd pass dozens of these. I wonder what advertising genius came up with the idea of sequential signs for the automobile era? Kids loved to shout them aloud as they passed yet they have an almost haiku-like quality.

 

[vitanola]

Pedro walked
Back home by golly
His bristly beard
Was "Hot-to-Molly"

Prickly Pears
Are Picked for pickles
No peach picks
A face that prickles

He used a match
To check gas tank
That's why they call him
"Skinless Frank"

At school crossings
Heed instructions!
Protect our little
Tax deductions

I think I have all of the rhymes in that book memorized...

 

[SSuperDave]

Free, Free
A Trip To Mars
For 900
Empty Jars!

Her Chariot Raced
At 80 Per
The Ambulance Picked Up
What Had Ben Hur

At ease, she said
Maneuvers begin
When you scrape that stubble
Off your chin!

 

[vitanola]

Round the corner
Lickety split
It's a beautiful car
Wasn't it?

Shaving Brushes
You'll soon see 'em
Way back East
In some museum

 

[LizzieMaine]

Don't Stick Your Arm
Out Quite So Far
It Might Go Home
In Another Car

 

[SSuperDave]

The Midnight Ride
Of Paul For Beer
Led To a
Warmer Hesmispehre

 

[Stanley Doble]

SSuperdave did you know someone collected 900 jars and claimed the trip to Mars? He got it. Mars, Germany that is.

 

[SSuperDave]

I did hear that, If I recall, his name was Frenchy something or other, and he was a druggist or store owner who collected the jars from customers in the name of "Help Send Frenchy To Mars". Burma Shave got a lot of publicity out of it, and he and his wife remained friends of the owners from that point forward.