Today's Guest Artist: Paul Tappenden with his story of "The Purple Man".

TalkFrank was created to be a voice for artists - artists of all types. We call the blog a repository for a reason: participation is not only encouraged, it is essential to our growth. Recently, we have been fortunate to have contributions from two such artists: Conductor Robert Debbaut wrote of an encounter with his idol, Leonard Bernstein. Musician Loren Korevec contributed an epic poem, "Leaves". Now, we have the great prviledge of including Mr. Paul Tappenden, a.k.a. The Rockland Forager. Paul is a man of many talents. He is an accomplished painter and his mural of Nyack graces the town hall. And, in his Rockland Forager guise, he teaches all of the wonders and health benefits of natural plants, herbs, spices and the like. Today, he is an author and here is his story "The Purple Man". Welcome, Paul, we are so fortunate to have you - in every sense of the word.

Words and photo by P. Tappenden

                                                        The Purple Man

A few years ago I was working in Manhattan's Greenwich Village and began to notice purple footprints meandering around the sidewalks. I noticed that they appeared in several places around the Village. One day, I decided to follow one of the trails. It ended up at an empty lot on Houston Street. It was closed in with a chain link fence that was covered with morning glories. I noticed while I stood there that other purple footprints trails also led there.

At the time I was working in the Puck Building. I got talking to one of the residents who told me the story of a man they called the Purple Man, who took over the unused lot and planted a garden which contained only purple flowers. One day, the City realized what he was doing and came in and bulldozed the whole garden and left it as a deserted lot once more. It was shortly after that that the footprints started appearing, all leading to the empty lot. All that remained of the garden was the morning glory that returned every year.

Once I heard that story, I stopped by the garden once more and helped myself to seeds from the pods that hung on the fence. I sprinkled them over my front yard and they've returned every year since. Some years they are all a blue/purple color and sometimes they bloom in an array of colors from whites to pinks, to reds and even rich purples.

Every fall, I am reminded of the Purple Man, and feel pleased that I have played a small part in helping his legend live on.