The Verse by the Side of the Road by Frank Rowsome Jr.

” ‘Though sometimes “mod” (I dance aerobic), I’ll always be computer-phobic.’ Jane Bukoskey of White Bear Lake, for one, took our bait and swallowed it whole, scribbled some verses - hey, she’s on a roll: “At the conclusion of our original Burma-Shave column, Bulletin Board - having lamented the sorry state of the light-verse art form as the 20th century winds down - invited amateur versifiers to send us their rhymes. Here’s the mystery verse: LISTEN, BIRDS THESE SIGNS COST MONEY SO ROOST A WHILE BUT DON’T GET FUNNY BURMA-SHAVE.” But Dick Gurney of Roseville insists that he saw it, and Anne Gagan of White Bear Lake says her brother used to recite it when they were kids - in the early ’40s. ” ‘The Verse by the Side of the Road’ says that the following jingle won considerable support in the company’s sign-writing committee but was never used on a roadside. My uncle Bud would drive the car, and he had a saying of his own - I don’t know if it’s original or not - but he would say, “Motorists reach an early grave reading signs for Burma-Shave.” ‘ The very next call to the Bulletin Board Hot Line came from Robert Weisel of Rice Lake, Wis., who remembered hearing: ‘I found myself in an early grave for reading signs marked Burma-Shave.’

The adults in the car would be reading the Burma-Shave signs as we bounced around - and I think I learned to read by watching the Burma-Shave signs.

“ Marilyn Ewaldt of Mahtomedi: ‘Your Bulletin Board on the Burma-Shave signs brought back such happy memories of riding in the country in my grandpa’s car back in the late ’30s. “Last week, Bulletin Board brought you a couple of dozen of our favorite old Burma-Shave jingles, on the occasion of the 25th-anniversary re-issuance of Frank Rowsome Jr.’s charming little book ‘The Verse by the Side of the Road.’ Readers responded with a slew of their own favorites, remembered - as much as 60 years later - with uncanny accuracy. Way back in September of 1990 (when this column was an infant), we devoted an entire page to Burma-Shave jingles - which led to many, many letters and phone calls (no emails then!) from Bulletin Board loyalists, which led to a second Burma-Shave column, published Saturday, September 15, 1990, under the headline “You rave? Yahoo! It’s Burma-Shave II!” It began: “These signs were all over, at one time.”

” ‘Listen, birds / these signs cost / money / so roost a while but / don’t get funny / Burma-Shave’ We were driving along the countryside and saw an old set of Burma-Shave signs in a farmer’s field. Writes Dean Bunn of Minneapolis: “We were out in Minot, North Dakota, several weeks ago, performing for a street festival.

The Verse by the Side of the Road by Frank Rowsome Jr.