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Albany folks taking a cue from Burma Shave
campaign
By Bill Whitaker
When it comes to posting signs of the times, folks in Albany
are looking a long ways back.
Although announcement of it will likely be lost in the excitement
of next Saturday's Watt Matthews Cowboy Day, merchants and town
leaders are just as thrilled about somebody's off-the-wall idea
of resurrecting the old Burma Shave sign concept once so popular
nationwide.
Big difference: This time, instead of advertising shaving cream,
the series of signs will tout Albany's many charms.
For those too young to know, Burma Shave once had a popular
advertising campaign. Along roads and highways, they mounted four
signs in close proximity. Each successive sign had one line from
a witty, four-line poem.
The last ended with the words "Burma Shave."
Simple, yet amazingly effective.
Which is why Ed Tackett, 74, an Albany High graduate who only
recently moved back to town, decided it might work to promote
his hometown.
"Three or four months ago, I read an article in a magazine
about the old Burma Shave signs and how neat they were and how
they had disappeared," Ed told me the other day. "I
was moving back to Albany about that time and just thought how
new and different such signs would be there."
WELCOME TO TOWN
If Albany had been rigidly set in its ways in the fashion of
so many small towns, Ed's idea might have gone no further. After
all, some old codgers might have grumbled that Albany already
had a famous sign - the old, weathered one proudly proclaiming
Albany "Home of the Hereford."
But that didn't happen.
Albany, which has been unusually geared-up lately about promoting
itself, rather than resting on its considerable laurels, quickly
embraced Ed's idea. Town leaders encouraged folks to come up with
four-line poems for posting in Burma Shave sign fashion along
the five roads leading into Albany.
The five winning poems will be announced during this weekend's
Watt Matthews Cowboy Day.
Some are fairly conventional, yet engaging:
Good vittles here,
Cowboy sized meals;
Come check us out,
You'll like our deals.
Other poems plugging Albany take into consideration even the
family pet:
Escape the traffic,
Crime and smog.
You'll like living here;
So will your dog.
One of the chief concerns is getting people to put on their
brakes and check Albany out:
Just one red light
To slow you down
And make you see
A lively town.
Shop Albany.
FLATTENED FAUNA
Judging from some poems, daily life in Albany may cure whatever
ails you:
Come visit us
A week, a year.
You'll find your woes
Will disappear.
Welcome, pardner.
Civic assets are readily stressed:
The Fandangle show,
Old Jail art,
Stop in Albany,
We'll steal your heart.
Lisa Sanders, owner of Ranch Rags and an Albany Chamber of
Commerce wheel, says local character Harold Law's fingerprints
are all over this sign:
See Jane shop,
Dick hunt and fish.
Drive carefully,
Avoid wildlife squish.
I'm told close to three dozen entries have come in, including
several from Harold Law and Ed himself. Beside the five sets of
signs they hope to post for travelers coming into town, they want
five more sets for travelers leaving town.
Sounds like a great idea to me, if for no other reason than
it displays the town's famous warmth, wit and down-home values,
much the way nearby Moran did with those hilarious highway department
signs alerting motorists that the "next five exits"
led to the roaring metropolis of Moran, population 293.
Alas, somebody with the highway department and no sense of
humor made the good folks of Moran take the signs down.
It's been everyone's loss.
Bill Whitaker, who would like to personally cast his vote for
the "squish" sign, can be reached at 676-6732. E-mail
Bill at WTWARN@aol.com.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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