Signs, back in the day

[katy]

Let's hear of the catchy signs you remember seeing, "back in the day".

I'll start w/one I remember seeing in the old barber shop/pool room, "No swearing, especially when children are around"

[TMarsh]

Lsmft
lucky strike means fine tobacco

[wwirz]

Burma Shave

[Dick M]

Saw both signs in an auto repair shop:

All complaints are referred to our complaint manager Helen Waite. If you have a complaint, go to Helen Waite.

I only take one complaint a day. Today is not your day!

[LeonardS]

Bowling Alley sign......”Perfect is 300....300 is worth $1,000!”

[Chuck Sea/Tac]

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No caulks in the bar!
Also just “no caulks “ in the entrance of grocery stores.

[JoeCB]

Caulks ... that made me laugh. Some of the towns in Notthern Michign were said to "roll up" the wooden plank sidewalks when the boys were coming to town.

Joe B

[Jack Shaft]

Flats fixed 1.50...'in god we trust, all others pay cash'

[Mulletwagon]

Originally Posted by TMarsh

Lsmft
lucky strike means fine tobacco

GIs use to say "Lord save me from Texas".

[Mulletwagon]

Use to be a sign in the Pentagon photo lab which said "If you want a better picture, bring a better face".

[700rpm]

From the office of my high school gym teacher”: Winners necer cheat, and cheaters never win.

From Henry Ford, supposedly in his office: “ The honor of a mechanic is that he works just as hard when the Boss is away as he does when the Boss is near.”

[McMimmcs]

“ Through these doors, walk the finest people in the world, my customers! “
Above the doors to my father’s dealership.

[rocket1]

In God we trust all others pay CASH.

[marty in Ohio]

Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
Marty

[TMarsh]

OK I give up, I'm from Texas where we say yonder as a measure of distance, what is "caulk" besides the stuff we put around winders

[Oldbluoval]

Over my favorite burger (and other) bar in college

Our credit manager is Helen Waite
If you want credit go to Helen Waite

[ahirt]

Don't Let Your Arm
Stick Out Too Far
It May Go Home
In Another Car
Burma Shave

[Dick Carne]

I recall that one of the teachers in the high school that I attended had this posted on his chalk board the first day of school one year:

"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, usually winds up in this class. ..."

[MickeyT]

From a photography studio: Photos that look like you $ 10
Photos that don't look like you $20

[gdmn852]

Yellow stop �� signs,road signs with glass reflectors, cast iron signs in Pennsylvania in towns with founding dates , also signs for Boston Store that had how many miles away you were from store in Erie Pa.

[Ranchero50]

Originally Posted by TMarsh

OK I give up, I'm from Texas where we say yonder as a measure of distance, what is "caulk" besides the stuff we put around winders

Logger's wear shoes with metal spikes, caulks, to help walk the downed trunks. During the civil war the shoes had hobbed nails in the soles so a lot of reenactment based businesses here in the civil war area have "No hobnail shoes" signs on the door to keep their wooden floors from damage when the period wearing geared reenactors come to town.

[Badpuppy]

The monkey took
One look at Jim
And threw the peanuts
Back at him
Burma Shave

[al's28/33]

cigarette ads that were "approved" by Doctors!!

[fordfarm]

Caulk boots, calk boots or cork boots are leather nail-soled boots worn by loggers in the Pacific Northwest and Canada for walking on logs.

[Chuck Sea/Tac]

Originally Posted by fordfarm

Caulk boots, calk boots or cork boots are leather nail-soled boots worn by loggers in the Pacific Northwest and Canada for walking on logs.

It’s pronounced “corks”, at least in western Washington. Most the loggers usually wore hard soled slippers/moccasins to and from their work bus (crummy).

[Pete]

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Originally Posted by Dick Carne

I recall that one of the teachers in the high school that I attended had this posted on his chalk board the first day of school one year:

"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, usually winds up in this class. ..."

Isn't that the Dunning-Kruger effect?

[Ak Sourdough]

This site keeps telling me the photo I was going to upload is an invalid file... so, never mind.

[1928Mik]

In my supplier factories I used to frequent, there were always "Safety First, Please Do Not Spit on The Floor" signs everywhere. Most of them had the 'p' made into an 'h' though. When one plant was being torn down, I found an original one which now hangs in my garage.

[ursus]

In an auto repair garage near my childhood home:

Tune-up Service:
Points and plugs pitted - $10
Plugs and pits pointed - $10
Pits and points plugged - $10
Get all three for $25.

[Ted Duke]

In a Texaco where I grew up.



Oil change $3.25
if you watch $5.00
If you talk $7.95

[T Scott]

"pity all the mighty Caesars, pulled their whiskers out with tweezers" Burma Shave

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Ted Duke

In a Texaco where I grew up.



Oil change $3.25
if you watch $5.00
If you talk $7.95

The same sign in my local station had one more at the bottom.

$15.95 if you help.

[bob from red oak]

Don't know if this is from back in the day but my wife bought me a sign for my shop. It reads "You can't buy Happiness- but- you can buy cars and that's kinda the same thing."

[JoeCB]

Originally Posted by TMarsh

OK I give up, I'm from Texas where we say yonder as a measure of distance, what is "caulk" besides the stuff we put around winders

OK Texan, I was wondering when someone would ask .... Caulked boots were (are) steel spiked boot soles that the old time lumber jacks wore, especially the men that road the logs down river.

Joe B
PS, A teacher once told me ..." the only stupid question is the one not asked"

[ericr]

Ripley's Believe It or Not many years ago claimed a tombstone in a cemetery had this inscription:

"Here Lies the Body of Jonathan Blake,
Stepped on the Gas Instead of the Brake"

[GRutter]

On a store counter there was a jar with pennies in it, and a sign that read

Need a Penny, Get a Penny
Need two Pennies, Get a Job.

[GRutter]

Stop Signs had cats eye marble reflectors.

Street signs were 4x4's, painted white, with the street names running vertically on the sides of the post.

I can remember my dad sending me to the gas station for a gallon of "white gas" with a quarter. Gas was $0.239. I don't know why I remember that.

[Ted Duke]

Originally Posted by GRutter

Stop Signs had cats eye marble reflectors.

Street signs were 4x4's, painted white, with the street names running vertically on the sides of the post.

I can remember my dad sending me to the gas station for a gallon of "white gas" with a quarter. Gas was $0.239. I don't know why I remember that.

I'm old and from the country. As a kid I remember the cats eyes reflectors. We didn't have road signs. It was 'turn right two roads past the school, unless you took the fork, then you double back through that road by the red barn". Of course that barn hasn't been painted in thirty years.


Actually when I moved to my home here in Virginia in 1980 I would tell people the route number and get a "Don't know them numbers." I finally found out I was two miles north of Crossroads store. But, Crossroads store burned in the 60's and it was a cornfield. LOL

[shew01]

Originally Posted by Ted Duke

I'm old and from the country. As a kid I remember the cats eyes reflectors. We didn't have road signs. It was 'turn right two roads past the school, unless you took the fork, then you double back through that road by the red barn". Of course that barn hasn't been painted in thirty years.


Actually when I moved to my home here in Virginia in 1980 I would tell people the route number and get a "Don't know them numbers." I finally found out I was two miles north of Crossroads store. But, Crossroads store burned in the 60's and it was a cornfield. LOL

As a kid, I remember directions like that. “Turn right after the barn (that’s no longer there).” That was fine for locals, but visitors were clueless.


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[big job]

"the man who loans tools died" "this shop is protected by a genuine wild cat" signs still there...

[katy]

Originally Posted by GRutter

I can remember my dad sending me to the gas station for a gallon of "white gas" with a quarter.

"white gas" was unleaded and uncoloured, we used it for outboard motors, Coleman stoves and lanterns.

[GPierce]

Norfolk: Sailors and dogs keep off the grass.

[McMimmcs]

Originally Posted by katy

"white gas" was unleaded and uncoloured, we used it for outboard motors, Coleman stoves and lanterns.

I thought we called that “ naphtha “ gas!

[TerryO]

The "white gas" I used and pumped was AMOCO premium.


TOB

[Richard Lorenz]

I thought that I sent this message yesterday, but apparently it didn't work.

My dad had a plumbing business. In the shop he had this sign

The man who lends tools is out.

[katy]

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Originally Posted by McMimmcs

I thought we called that “ naphtha “ gas!

That was another name for it. Maybe the proper name?

[Dave in MN]

Somewhere along Route 66 while driving our '29 Phaeton on a cross country trip:

Cattle Crossing
means go slow
That old bull
is some
Cow's beau
Burma-Shave

[Ak Sourdough]

Naptha is taken from farther up in the cooker during the refining process than gasoline. More closely related to lacquer thinner. Doesn't even smell like gas.

[Badpuppy]

Red Devil lighter fluid label says it's naphtha.

[gary678*]

In the mid-fifties in northern New Jersey "White Gas" was indeed Amoco Premium at around $.30 per gallon. My dad used it in his lawn mower. I walked 1/2 mile with a glass gallon jug, had it filled, then walked home. Dad wouldn't drive to get it because of safety so I walked on a busy road with a glass grenade!

[Lona]

My plumber dad used white gas for his pump-up blow torch. Claimed regular gas harder to light and wouldn't stay lit.

Glen

[woofa.express]

Originally Posted by GRutter

Stop Signs had cats eye marble reflectors.

Street signs were 4x4's, painted white, with the street names running vertically on the sides of the post.

I can remember my dad sending me to the gas station for a gallon of "white gas" with a quarter. Gas was $0.239. I don't know why I remember that.

hello Mr Rutter. I remember my dad complaining bitterly when gas rose from 5 pence a gallon (Imp gal) to 7 pence a gallon. I had only recently moved from nappies (diapers) to short trousers.

[asapguy]

I have a nice old heavy round sign that says "Sound Your Sparton" Heard they were used on the Lincoln Hwy.

[woofa.express]

Originally Posted by asapguy

I have a nice old heavy round sign that says "Sound Your Sparton" Heard they were used on the Lincoln Hwy.

it's not only the spartan which sounds great, but the exhaust on your A and the rumble of the 1340 in cruise or work rpm. I love them all.

[GRutter]

Right Turn on Red...
Do you remember when "Right Turn on Red" was NOT allowed at intersections

[Link]

On a radiator shop, "A good place to take a leak"

[McMimmcs]

What happens if you get scared 1/2 to death twice ?

[shew01]

Originally Posted by McMimmcs

What happens if you get scared 1/2 to death twice ?

.25 scared to death? ;-)


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[katy]

Originally Posted by GRutter

Right Turn on Red...
Do you remember when "Right Turn on Red" was NOT allowed at intersections

Sure do.

"This is a non-profit company, it wasn't planned that way, but it is."

[GeneBob]

"Happy Motoring" on the Esso, then Exxon gas stations. Do they still have that?

[Nosetime]

Modern one. The tip jar on the counter at my local liquor store reads: 401K. Pretty funny from the Syrian guys that run it, and it's always flowing over, so clever marketing indeed.

[77Birdman]

Originally Posted by GRutter

Stop Signs had cats eye marble reflectors.

Street signs were 4x4's, painted white, with the street names running vertically on the sides of the post.

I can remember my dad sending me to the gas station for a gallon of "white gas" with a quarter. Gas was $0.239. I don't know why I remember that.

Theres a development in my area in which all of the street signs are 4 x 4's with vertical names. Nothing was laid out square, and it meanders through the woods, quite extensively. The way the signs are located its confusing at best. It takes a couple of trips in there to figure out which way youre going!

[Badpuppy]

I was a kid in Oglesby, IL, the street signs were 4x4 concrete obelisks about 4' high. The paint faded and had to be restencilled every year or two. Probably replaced by now.

[Chris in WNC]

1970s Tampa, the older neighborhoods had those same concrete sign posts.
I loved them.

1990s Jacksonville FL there were a very small number of them still remaining in old neighborhoods.

[31Cabriolet68-C]

Does it count if they're still in view? These are still up at the Texas Tavern in Roanoke VA:

We don't take checks, and we don't handle bumblebees.
And:
Yes, ladies do enjoy eating here!

Funkiest little place you'll probably ever see, and best chili ever, at least according to The Champ, Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali who wanted it to get a Michelin Star!

[Keith True]

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In a book I read about 30 years ago the ranch had a sign that said,we don't rent pigs.

[midgetracer]

this will never
come to pass
Backseat driver
out of gas
Burma Shave

[Planojc]

Welding shop sign, We can weld anything but a broken heart and the crack of dawn.

[katy]

I remember a ranch w/two barns, the sign on one barn said "Horse Barn", the sign on the other barn said "The Udder Barn".

[stickshift]

I thought this was funny.thumbnail_IMG_3962.jpg

[Oldgearz]

Originally Posted by wwirz

Burma Shave

Thishas to be the number one answer to this question!!....if you come from back East. Don't know if they were in the South and West.

[daveymc29]

When I was a kid we lived in the buildings that had been a "Toll Gate." If some local asked where we lived we said "The Tool Gale." Out of area plate or accent we would say "Healy Toll Gate." Didn't really matter, it was the only Toll Gate for 50 miles. It had been built in 1889 by Donald Healy, on his road from Horshoe Bend to Boise Idaho, which was a dirt road named Cartwright Road, Still exists in parts, but private property. Hwy 55 is 3 miles west of it on Spring Creek. Used to be Spring Valley Ranch, is now Aviemore area of Eagle.

[CHuDWah]

Originally Posted by Keith True

In a book I read about 30 years ago the ranch had a sign that said,we don't rent pigs.

Lonesome Dove?

[Keith True]

That was the book.Since covid names seem to escape me for a few minutes.The oddest thing is that when I think of somebody,I will usually only recall their first or last name,but not both at the same time.Then it pops up in my head a minute later.

[nkaminar]

Saw this yesterday. Probably before 1915 when the Model T can out with electric lights. At the Mast General Store, founded 1880.

[31Cabriolet68-C]

Tip Jar in Providence RI sandwich shop:

"Remember, our hands are in your food!"

Food was great, jar had plenty of $$$$...

[mcgarrett]

Saw this sign on the wall in an old machine shop:

[B]"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from Bad Judgement"[/B]

[stickshift]

This one has been around for a while.

[fried okra]

Slow down Pa
Sakes alive,

Ma missed signs,
4 and 5.

Burma Shave

[JayJay]

I've seen this one in a couple of stores, not exactly vintage but still cute:

"Unattended children will be given espresso and a free kitten."

[Bob Bidonde]

There once was a deli at the Hillside Avenue railroad crossing in Williston Park on Long Island, and on the side of that building was this sign: "Go slow and see our shops. Go fast as see out cops!"
I of course tested both sentences with my 1954 Hot Rod Studebaker, my brother's Hot Rod 1943 Mercury, my 1953 Ford Tudor, my 1957 Chevy and lastly my 1931 Model "A" Coupe.

[Chris in WNC]

Originally Posted by JayJay

I've seen this one in a couple of stores, not exactly vintage but still cute:

"Unattended children will be given espresso and a free kitten."

or sometimes a puppy.....

[Jemelton#]

The Sun done riz
The Sun Has set
and we aren't out
of Iowa yet.
berma shave

[shew01]

It’s a hybrid. It burns gas and oil.


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[Bigsnapper43]

P.P.P.P.P.P. Prior planning prevents p--s poor performances.

[Bigsnapper43]

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P.P.P.P.P.P. Prior planning prevents p--s poor performances.

[David in San Antonio]

I never saw a Burma Shave sign in real life, but my favorite from the book is:
Altho insured
Remember, Kiddo
They don’t pay you
They pay your widow
Burma Shave

They’re all listed here:
http://burma-shave.org/jingles/

[David in San Antonio]

Katz’s Delicatessen in NYC put up a sign in WWII that remains today:
Send a salami
To your boy in the Army

[Lanny]

Here's a couple of signs that are kinda funny.

Click on picture to Enlarge.