May 4th, 1974: Henry's Artworkshop is Open for Business!

Richard, the owner of house at #54 Centre Street, Nantucket (presently an annex to the Jared Coffin hotel) rented me dirt floor end of his cellar to use as a sign-making studio. I moved into this space, placing pallets over the dirt and set up two saw-horses with an unfinished hollow door across the top, as my worktable. Inky, my "Hallowe'en Cat" visited my shop walking with me on a red leash only once. She disappeared while outside my rented cottage on Washington Street extension on the patio, chasing june bugs. The date was May 15th: four years to the day since my father passed away without me having a conscious memory of him, as I was raised by Mom and her second husband, the only man whom I knew as Dad, who raised me with as much love as he would have given to his own son. Mom and Dad birthed two children together... a brother and a sister who live in California, the state where I was born.

~ Joseph David Henry Ware Bryan-Royster ~