home  THE TUSCAN RED ROSE  home

a photo essay of box car etchings...

Larry Penn has spent many hours in railroad yards. It was there, wandering amid the box cars, that he began to notice the particular marks and signatures chalked on the sides of some cars.

As he photographed their logos over the years, Larry developed a kinship with some of these hobo personalities, with whom he readily identified. Perhaps it was because of his own life on the road as a trucker.

As might be expected, time spent among the hoboes has produced songs on the topic such as "Tuscan Red Rose", a musing on the identity of one mysterious woman box car signer.		 a rose...

"A woman will do ya that way sometimes
Like a lyric low down in the prose
She won't let you be, you will never be free
Can you tell me the name of that "Tuscan Red Rose"

For more than twenty years, the song and the search have failed to reveal her identity. Perhaps the mystery is poetic, but others have been found. The result is a selected photo essay guaranteed to provoke interest...


The Tuscan Red Rose Collection...
Has been glimpsed in some choice locations...
  • National Railroad Museum - Green Bay, Wisconsin
  • Dayton Montgomery County Library - Dayton, Ohio
  • Illinois Railroad Museum - Union, Illinois
  • Iron Horse Concert Hall - El Dorado, Kansas
  • Lens Art Studio - Wichita, Kansas
  • Wisconsin Railroad Days - Plymouth, Wisconsin
  • Houston County Fair - Caledonia, Minnesota
  • California State Railroad Museum - Sacramento, California
  • Long Steel Rail Festival - Ely, Nevada
  • And graced the walls of the Cafe Carpe in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin for one year as an unique art exhibit.


The Collection consists of a dozen-plus photographs of prime box car etchings, enlarged to 5X7. Each one, mounted on an off-white mat. The frames are 11X15, painted box car red of course, with no-glare glass. They are ready to hang. Appropriate captions have been printed on separate laminated card stock, but hanging method is optional.

A sturdy Shipping case allows the collection to be shipped anywhere as advance warm-up for a concert date, or to stand alone as an exhibit.

A companion workshop on Hobo marks is another option. With some of these legendary hieroglyphics discussed and demonstrated on a blackboard, like the chalk cat, or how to make J.B. King Esq.'s notorious moniker in one stroke!


An interesting possibility limited only by wall space for:
 Museums   Libraries   Clubs
 Halls   Senior Centers
Herbie The Rambler J.B.


For
Bookings
Contact: 		LARRY PENN
or
Cookie Man Music Co.
3955 South First Place
Milwaukee, WI    53207-4307
414-483-7306
E-Mail: Cookeman@execpc.com

Home Discography Trains by Cream City Slim Order Form
Casey Jones Whistle Workshop Railroad Programs Grandma's Patchwork Quilt The Tuscan Red Rose

Cookie will take you home... Copyright © 1998 - Cookie Man Music Co.