Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Guns: Burma Shave Style

For three years in the early 2000s, Joy and I drove 45 miles each way between Decatur and Champaign, IL two or three times a week. We did this to teach at Millikin University while still living in Champaign and if there is a more dull drive in the country, I wouldn't want to see it. The land is flat, through most of the school year the fields are brown with the remainders of harvested corn, and there is little to break up the monotony.

But one thing does stand out in that landscape, an element I had completely forgotten but made both of us laugh every time we saw it - the gunssavelife.com ads. About ten years ago, the Champaign Country Rifle Association decided to begin putting Burma Shave style ads up on all major interstates radiating out of Champaign-Urbana. The ads were simple and outrageous and so over the top that you couldn't help but laugh when you saw them, but they certainly worked to get the group's point across. I thought you might enjoy seeing what we saw those three years and what I saw the two times I made that drive this past weekend:
Almost too much to believe.

1 comment:

Andy Forbes said...

My favorite is still:
Tell your senator
when he runs
to ban the criminals
not the guns.

(Oh, it makes so much sense now! We should make criminals illegal. Then they'll learn that they need to shape up and stop using guns to shoot the good guys. Thank you, GunsSaveLife.com!)