Mount Ayr Record-News, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, February 16, 2012

Diagonal will be the home of a new set of vintage Burma-Shave signs being put up around Iowa by Our Iowa magazine. The following is a portion of a letter that was received this past week in response to an application sent in as a joint effort by by the Town of Diagonal and the Diagonal Lions Club:

"Congratulations! Diagonal has been selected as our No. 1 Choice as the site for the single set of Burma-Shave signs in Ringgold county.

"We're delighted that your community will now be part of our plan to bring back the fun and nostalgia of the once beloved Burma-Shave signs, by placing a single set of them in each of Iowa's 99 coun-ties.

"For authenticity, each set of signs will be one of Burma-Shave's original vintage jingles - each light-hearted yet appropriate and politically correct - one from the list which the Our Iowa staff has compiled from the more than 500 original jingles on record.

"There will be no duplication of signs. Each county will have a different jingle, making each set an exclusive. The sole set will not only add uplifting fun to your community, but will likely draw a good deal of tourist traffic after we list the location of each set of signs in future issues of Our Iowa.

"Many of our 70,000 subscribers are already telling us they plan to visit the Burma-Shave communities to personally see the signs, and we fell certain they will stop to shop and dine in your town as well! . .

". . .In the mean time, we want to thank you for helping us bring back a slice of Americana, while adding roadside humor to Iowa and extra customer traffic to your community."

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2012

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, April 26, 2012

There's a new feature to the landscape when you approach Diagonal from the west on County Road J-33. It's the new red and white "Burma-Shave" signs that have been placed there by the Our Iowa magazine in its campaign to recreate some nostalgia in each county across the state. The signs read: "It's best for one . . . who hits the bottle . . . to let another . . . use the throttle. Our Iowa.

Burma-Shave, a shaving cream company, used to have the jingle signs up all across the country in the days before interstate highways moved traffic along too fast to pick up the messages placed on sets of five signs along the highways and byways of the United States.

Our Iowa magazine is sponsoring putting up the signs at 150 foot intervals so they can be read by travelers without distracting them too much. There is no duplication of signs across Iowa with a different jingle in every county. Only one set of signs is being put up in each county as well.

The town of Diagonal along with the Diagonal Lions Club filled out the application for the signs after Martha HAMMOND suggested that Diagonal needed to be the place for the signs in Ringgold county.

The locations of each set of signs will be mentioned in the Our Iowa magazine, with readers planning to visit the sites around the state.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record News

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2012