A recently received e-mail brought back memories and caused me to reflect on travelling by car with children today and travel when I was a child.
Since Labor Day weekend is almost upon us, which is the traditional end of summer and of summer travel, the e-mail caused me to think of travel. The e-mail said “If you remember what is in this message, you are as old as dirt.” I did, so I must be. Are you?
Today our daughter and her husband in Olathe put their three kids, aged 7, 5, and 4, in the back seat of a van and load bags on top or in the very back. That takes care of the luggage.
The trip with three boisterous young ones is taken care of by a bunch of TV and other tapes they watch en-route. That is when they aren’t taking naps in the spacious van.
Of course, the interstate highway network is also a plus from my childhood travels on interminable two-lane highways that went on seemingly forever.
The e-mail I received was about entertainment along those interminable two-lane highways of yesteryear. On our annual trek from Birmingham, Ala., southwest through Mississippi into Louisiana and across southern Louisiana to grandma’s rural paradise (to me) outside tiny DeRidder, my younger brother and I had to amuse ourselves on the 12-hour drive.
There was cow poker, where one looked out the right, the other the left side of the car and counted the cows we saw. That worked fine in rural areas, which was about 98 percent of the trip, but got old in a hurry. How many cows can there be between Birmingham and DeRidder? A lot.
Next came finding the letters of the alphabet on signboards. That worked pretty well except for X, Y, and Z. I hate to say that counting cows was more appealing.
The big treat came with the subject of the e-mail. Every few miles there were five small oblong red signs with white letters in farmers’ fields. There would be a few words on the first four signs, about 100 feet apart, and the fifth always said Burma Shave.
The Burma Shave signs were along highways from coast to coast and sea to shining sea and Canada to Mexico. Many had safety messages, some were plain silly, but all certainly broke the monotony of a 12-hour road trip. Like most of the two-lane highways, all are now gone.
So for those of you who are not old as dirt, this column ends with some genuine Burma Shave sign sayings:
Don’t stick your elbow
Out so far
Or it may go home
In another car
Don’t lose your head
To gain a minute
You need your head
Your brains are in it
Brother speeder
Let’s rehearse
All together
Hello nurse
Out of space, out of rhyme, out of column, out of time. That was from me.
John Reichley is a retired Army officer and retired Department of the Army civilian employee.
