I learned a lot about life from getting to know Henry. At one point my whole apartment was decked out with his artwork. I remember when I got hit by a car while skateboarding on State Street when I was 19, back in 1999, I showed up to work a few days later with a plastic back brace on. Henry always called me "Homeboy" because that's how I introduced myself. He was like, "Hey, Homeboy- what happened to you?"
And I replied, "I don't know, man. I guess I'm a turtle now." He found this so hilarious. Just kept going up to every single customer, saying "Homeboy's a turtle now."
It became clear that he liked to write and draw, so I got him some markers, construction paper, and crayons. I kept it behind the counter and I'd offer him a free coffee in exchange for some drawings. We would only serve him decaf, as a rule. He'd ask if it was decaf, and we'd tell him no, of course not. And he'd sit there and draw, at the coffee shop, for hours and hours all day long. He drew things like angry bears, Santa Claus, and of course himself, often as Santa Claus for some reason.
The other interesting thing he would do was that he'd repeat the same numerical pattern, notebook after notebook. 1210. It wasn't obvious what it meant, or anything. But I kind of figured something out about it: if you graphed it, 1 - 2 - 0 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 0 is actually the direction of a sine wave. I thought that was kind of cool.
The hardcore kids used to take him to shows back when, in the mid 90's. He became kind of a staple, at shows. He's still the coolest guy that I know.