Burma Shave

This was the first Phenomena in the pop culture of the Fifties and Sixties
that told us that aliens were among us: signs on the highways…poems…
four lines on four signs spaced conveniently along the side of the road….
the fifth read: Burma Shave.

The four lines were funny and witty and topical….they had a hook, and
after miles of the same roads, one began looking forward to the next of them…
it was better than license plate poker.

But some of the four line poems, or, slogans…..we would notice after
years of driving those classic American roads began to suggest a different,
slightly unnerving story….

The first one, the first “poem” that we recognized was different from
the others was:

Can you see me?

I am here.

What you see is

Not that clear

Burma Shave

Rather vague, kind of cute. We were driving through Iowa corn land in August,
and the two lane highway was a thread of space through tall fields of stalks. I almost
killed myself and my whole family when I was passing a semi, and there was another
semi in front of it with a car coming…I got in between the trucks somehow…no one
said a word.

It would be more fun

To go by air

But we can’t hang

These signs up there

Burma Shave

It was a bit like Alfred Hitchcock playing a practical joke on America..only,
it wasn’t a movie. I don’t ever remember seeing the same one twice.

Win a free trip

To Mars

For only 100

Empty jars

Burma Shave

A person sent in 100 jars and won a trip to Mars, Germany….but is it a local joke for
yokels, or something more?

Just this once

And just for fun

We’ll let you finish

What we’ve begun

?????


Yes, they knew what they were doing…..by then, we were under their comtrol