It's official. Buena Save is History!

It was time to wrap things up for Buena Save.  That became pretty obvious in July, when I picked up the signs after the Spring/Summer "campaign."  Two of the sets had lost a sign or two, making their messages inscrutable.  As noted before, one whole set had disappeared.  Finally, signs that had been out for both the Fall, 2011 and Spring, 2012 campaigns were getting pretty weather beaten.  Their ink was peeling, and some of the sign boards had taken a few dings.  Their time had come, and gone.

Thanks to Tom Trombley at the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History, all but one set of the remaining Buena Save signs have a new role as part of the Museum's collection.  Like their "ancestors" - the Burma Shave signs of old - the 21st Century's Buena Save signs are now gone, but not entirely forgotten.

What about the one remaining set?  Pastor John Wernecke at my church, Zion Lutheran in Bay City, Michigan, had asked if he could have the "Jesus Saves" set.  I was happy to oblige.  Since their message is not just tied to Buena Vista, I'm guessing that we may just see those signs again.

I hope you've enjoyed this quirky diversion.  Thanks for visiting the Buena Save blog!

: ^ )   Bill Wright  8/24/2012

Spring '12 Signs Pulled

It's been a few days longer than the 60 allowed by the BV Zoning Ordinance, but the signs that had been posted in mid-May (at least the ones that were still there) were pulled up today.  Only the "Jesus Saves" sign set, at the Good Shepherd Church of God in Christ on Perkins, remains.  Those were placed later, so they can sty up into August.

Another Message

Recently, a new set of "Burma Shave-like" signs went up at the Good Shepherd Church of God in Christ, on Perkins Street in Buena Vista Township.  These take a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach to the Buena Save theme, with a different "save" message.  Pastor Theodore Monroe was kind and brave enough to present this message to the public.  (Three other churches had declined the opportunity.)

RECESSION LEAVE YOU
     IN THE LURCH?
GET OFF THE COUCH
     AND INTO CHURCH
Jesus Saves


These signs are just west of the sign set at
the Claytor and Doerr schools site, visible to
travelers heading east.  I hope to leave them up
until the second week of August.

Update to June 8 Post

Signs missing!

I drove past the Brunkow School location a couple days ago, only to find that the signs that were shown in the picture below aren't there anymore!  So far, inquiries about their whereabouts have been fruitless.  I will not be posting a map of this site.

Spring '12 Locations - 1

BRUNKOW SCHOOL - SOUTHBOUND OUTER DRIVE - "PUNCH"

This message pretty well sums up what Buena Save is all about:

     ONE GIVES
          THE RECESSION
     A PUNCH IN THE NOSE
          BY WEARING A SMILE
     WHEREVER ONE GOES
          Buena Save





I'll try to add a map, so you can find this spot.

Remembering Burma Shave

 Although it's been almost 50 years since Burma Shave signs last graced American roadsides, memories of them linger for lots of people.  If you know where to look - and I'll show you a few places - you can pick up a lot of Burma Shave info on the web.

Burma Shave was made in Minneapolis, so it's not unusual that it made a list of 150 topics that were included in the MN 150 exhibit at the Minnesota History Center.  Click on the link below to get to their homepage.  Then type in a search for the term "Burma Shave" for links to a host of references to the product and their ad campaign.
www.minnesotahistorycenter.org

Another Midwestern museum to celebrate Burma Shave and its unique advertising campaign is Milwaukee's Eisner American Museum of Advertising and Design.  A set of Burma Shave signs is part of the decor for their Midwest Express Theater.  From their homepage - www.theeisner.com - go to the Exhibits button to take a virtual tour and check it out for yourself.  Thanks to Don Milne of www.RoadTrip62.com for the heads-up on this cool site!

Building on an article he wrote for the December, 1965 issue of American Heritage magazine - www.americanheritage.com/content/verse-side-road - Frank Rowsome, Jr. wrote the definitive history of Burma Shave - The Verse by the Side of the Road.  Both article and book give some history of the company and their advertising.  They also help to explain why people from the Burma Shave era were so enthralled by these diminutive messages.

If you've seen a few of the Burma Shave jingles and would like to see more, try a visit to www.Burma-Shave.org for access to the whole list from 1926 through 1963.  They've got other links to more Burma Shave-iana for the curious fan.

As we have here in Buena Vista, the Burma Shave idea sometimes gets revived in other places. One example is Our Iowa magazine's campaign to install Burma Shave-type signs in each of Iowa's 99 counties.  The Quad City Times' Bill Wundram addressed this in a July 7, 2011 editorial. http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/bill-wundram/verse-by-the-side-of-the-road-is-back/article_aabd9eba-a90d-11e0-ad0f-001cc4c03286.html

You can see that this little slice of Americana retains quite a following.  For a taste of this "history,"  why not take a side trip to Buena Vista and check out its latest offspring?

Thank you, Saginaw News!

The Saginaw News has lent their support to this Spring's Buena Save campaign with a nice article by Adam Bouton.  I've appreciated the coverage and editorial support that the Saginaw News has provided since the Buena Save project began.  The link below gets you to Adam's article via the Saginaw News portion of the M-Live news site.  When you're at the M-Live site, you can search on "Buena Save" to see all the coverage we've gotten in The News.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2012/05/buena_save_signs_playing_off_1.html