Today is my friend Sal’s 94th Birthday @salvatoredeldeo I first met Sal in his garden on a summer afternoon in 2016. His wife Josephine was in the hospital after suffering a stroke. He recounted his visit to see her earlier that day. He had taken with him a rare ripe fig from their tree and even in her frail state, unable to verbally communicate, she reached for the fruit instantly understanding its preciousness. Later that fall, a few months after Josephine had passed away, I visited Sal in his studio. He recounted his arrival in Provincetown, his proposal to her under the monument, their six-month honeymoon in Italy, and the life they built together in their adopted and beloved town. Over their decades together they raised a family, helped save the “back shore” now the Province Lands, started a restaurant with their pal Ciro and eventually another bearing Sal’s name - both of which continue to this day. Now at age 94, Sal walks each morning down the hill from the house he built to the studio he created to paint. This unwavering drive to create and Sal's steadfast commitment to this town, his family, and to his art is an inspiration to me. I purchased the 1972 self portrait seen on the final slide last year from a show of his work at the Mary Heaton Vorse house. In it Sal is wearing an old Union civil war hat he had kept in the studio with a banner of red, white and blue unfurled behind him. Recently he revealed to me he painted it during the Watergate hearings when he was feeling particularly patriotic. It hangs in our library where it is a tribute and daily reminder of this incredible man—an utterly American spirit who marches to his own drum, and a shining example of the improbable essence of this town.