Roadside Rhymes

Alas, never seen along scenic highways and byways anymore, (Now, tacky billboards clutter roads from shore to shore!) Are the pithy Burma-Shave signs displayed in red and white, That provided the traveling public with so much delight! Signs were planted by PhDs (Post Hole Diggers) fifty yards apart; Folks memorized them by rote and recited them from the heart. Dads became adept at suddenly shifting their cars in reverse, Should Mom or the kids miss a line of that mesmerizing verse! For massaging their spines, cows and horses found them handy. Miscreants used them for targets - their usual modus operandi. College boys "borrowed" signs to decorate their college dorms. Others were set atilt or otherwise marred by savage thunder storms! Six sequential signs were arraigned along a farmer's fence. Each was carefully composed so as not to cause offense. Shakespeare would be aghast at such appalling versification, But never mind, for nigh on 40 years they tickled a generation! 'Tis so sad that these clever mots have vanished from the scene. What was once an educational trip is now so boring and routine! When rising each morn/Your stubble to mow/And your mug to lave/ You'll sigh and mourn/The demise of signs/Reading Burma-Shave! Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired (© All Rights Reserved)