The Expiration Date.

Recently my mother, yes the giver of pinecones one, hurt her back lifting a 60 pound vintage sewing machine since that is how senior citizens in my family work on upper body strength.
Just kidding.
We do lots of fork lifting.
As in table to mouth.
As in extra reps if there is pie.
So I was needing some extra pinecones... just kidding again...I went to stay with her and help out as she mended because I needed to feel like I was 9 years old again and in need of time out.
For almost 2 weeks I trepidatiously tried to tend to a person who knows the correct way to do most everything, won't eat anything unless it is 'good for you', keeps EVERYTHING in case she or someone she knows might need it and who is a bit snippy now because she is in pain.
Sheesh.
The things we do for love.
Or what we do out of guilt and possibly the shadow of future quilt.
50/50
Point of the story?
Butter.
Yes, butter.
It has been my experience that the Great Depression generation believes that butter is Greasy Gold.
To them it is good on anything and should always be in the house.
Always.
As a child my mother would put it on sandwiches, both sides, to 'keep the mayonnaise from soaking into the bread'.
Yuck.
I hated it.
My mothers version of a good sandwich was 2 pieces of bread, lots of butter and some butter toppings like roast beef or ham.
Well, during my stay with her I was making some food for the two of us and needed some butter to saute a few vegetables.
There was no butter in the refrigerator so out to the giant garage freezer of long forgotten leftovers and bargain groceries I went.
Found it:


Butter from a bygone era.

Look at the 'best if used by' people!

2007 !!
Butter from another decade!!

But my mom is 83 and only in ill health from trying to do too much and I wanted to tempt fate.

So we ate it.

It was actually delicious!
Expiration dates are made to be tested by people who live (and possibly die) on the edge, who take risks, who have no fear of danger!
Sell by dates did not even exist for the public till the 1970's yet humans survived for centuries and myriad generations before their existence.
My family has eaten bugs, worms, fish food, dirt and dog treats, all with no dates to warn us off.
We are still going strong.

Anyway...

I am alive and healthy after eating 11 year old butter.
My mother is on the mend, but not because she was eating 11 year old butter.
Expiration dates are helpful, sometimes annoying, easily ignored, wasteful and a predictor of things to possibly come.

My plan is to go well past my human expiration date.

Hope you will join me!


Thank you for being here.