# Kitchen archeology **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 16, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869 "2012-10-16T11:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/21 "2012-10-17T23:26:13Z")
> [@kath94](#): > > Oh, and occasionally we’ll come across something in her pantry that has a “Gemco” or “Fedco” price sticker on it. :rolleyes: How outdated would those be? I’ve never heard of either, but assumed it was a regional thing in an area I’ve never been in. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/22 "2012-10-18T00:33:55Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > I read this thread title as “Kitten Archaeology”. This is significantly less creepy. I’m glad I’m not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/23 "2012-10-18T00:39:47Z")
> [@Rich\_Mann](#): > > I once opened a can of tomato soup at my mother’s house and didn’t like the look of it. Looking at the can, it was 15 years out of date. > > After that, I went through her whole kitchen and threw out about a third of her voluminous horde of canned goods. And I could write a horror story about her chest freezer without even the need to invoke any fictional dismembered body parts! I would actually worry about anybody who lived through the 1930s who _didn’t_ do this. Or anybody who _lived_ with anybody who lived through the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/24 "2012-10-18T00:47:57Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > How outdated would those be? I’ve never heard of either, but assumed it was a regional thing in an area I’ve never been in. [Gemco bit it in 1986](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemco) and [Fedco (Federal Employees’ Distributing Company)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Employees'_Distributing_Company) in 1999, assuming we’re talking Southern California. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/25 "2012-10-18T00:48:45Z")
My mother has some spices in her kitchen that are 25-30 years old. I can’t imagine that they have any potency, at all. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/26 "2012-10-18T02:04:04Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > [Gemco bit it in 1986](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemco) and [Fedco (Federal Employees’ Distributing Company)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Employees'_Distributing_Company) in 1999, assuming we’re talking Southern California. Bingo! ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/27 "2012-10-18T02:16:32Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > I read this thread title as “Kitten Archaeology”. This is significantly less creepy. Me, too. A few years ago my husband was looking for something spicy to add to his mother’s bland east European cooking and found a jar of seasoning from “Two Guys.” Anybody else remember that chain? It went out of existence around 1980 or so. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/28 "2012-10-18T02:19:16Z")
We moved here from California nearly three years, and we recently came across a box of Safeway brand toothpicks. Evidently, we don’t eat toothpicks very often. I’d be afraid to go through my mother’s kitchen as she’s lived in that house for about 45 years. No telling what oddities are hiding in her cabinets and drawers. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/29 "2012-10-18T02:48:23Z")
No story, just a recommendation. The spouse likes to keep a nice healthy stock of canned food against the possibility of the breakdown of civilization or a New England winter. We label everything with the year of purchase and rotate out the oldest stuff to the pantries and shelters during the Thanksgiving drives every year. One gets to keep a solid pantry, one never has to eat canned food, and the Needy benefit. Works for us. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/30 "2012-10-18T03:23:38Z")
Okay. Which one of you jokers is sneaking stuff into my pantry? I clean it out once a year and I always find stuff that’s three years out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/31 "2012-10-18T03:58:47Z")
Why do I keep reading the OP title as **kitten archeology**? ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/32 "2012-10-18T05:23:04Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > I would actually worry about anybody who lived through the 1930s who _didn’t_ do this. Or anybody who _lived_ with anybody who lived through the 1930s. Hey Doug, I’m not exactly clear on what you mean here? Are you worried about those who don’t keep canned goods forever, or those who don’t occasionally cull the herd? For what its worth, Mom was born into the Great Depression and it shows in her hoarding of food and her insistence that no edible morsel ever go in the trash. (Anything she can’t get the dog to eat, she feeds to the local wild raccoons!) ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/33 "2012-10-19T00:07:40Z")
> [@Rich\_Mann](#): > > Hey Doug, I’m not exactly clear on what you mean here? Are you worried about those who don’t keep canned goods forever, or those who don’t occasionally cull the herd? > > For what its worth, Mom was born into the Great Depression and it shows in her hoarding of food and her insistence that no edible morsel ever go in the trash. (Anything she can’t get the dog to eat, she feeds to the local wild raccoons!) Oh, please get her to stop feeding wild animals; it is very very bad for them. It’s true, in my experience, that those who lives through the Great Depression throw nothing out, and their children aren’t much better. Add the tendency to pull anything potentially useful whenever it’s on sale … all I can say is, Thank God for food pantries. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/34 "2012-10-19T00:20:00Z")
When my Grandpa passed away in 2008, we were going through his house. We started on the fridge, and found cans of beer in the back with pull tabs. Still cold. The kind of beer? Budweiser Light. Not Bud Light - Budweiser Light. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/35 "2012-10-19T08:14:27Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > When my Grandpa passed away in 2008, we were going through his house. We started on the fridge, and found cans of beer in the back with pull tabs. Still cold. The kind of beer? Budweiser Light. Not Bud Light - Budweiser Light. I still have a 6-pack of Billy Beer (from the Carter administration). ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/36 "2012-10-19T08:22:24Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Oh, please get her to stop feeding wild animals; it is very very bad for them.[snip] Oh, I know! But try telling her that! In her defense these raccoons regularly mount coordinated attacks on neighborhood trash cans, and nothing she leaves out for them is worse than what they scavenge up and down the street. (The creek where they live is at the end of the street, just one door down.) In other news; I still would like clarification from Beware of Doug if he stops by. Just curious. Sorry to hijack. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2012, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869/37 "2012-10-20T01:02:37Z")
> [@Rich\_Mann](#): > > Oh, I know! But try telling her that! In her defense these raccoons regularly mount coordinated attacks on neighborhood trash cans, and **nothing she leaves out for them is worse than what they scavenge** up and down the street. You misunderstand - I am certain wild animals will not eat dangerous food - naturally dangerous, I know anti-freeze, etc. is another issue. My point is that as soon as a wild animal becomes a scavenger, it becomes a pest, like your mother’s raccoons, and its days are numbered. It will attack a child, be identified as a disease vector, or cause too many traffic accidents, and much time and money will be spent killing it, if we are lucky, or most of its species, if we follow historical patterns. If anyone ever wants to feed a wild animal, please just give it arsenic and have done. Yeah, I’m exaggerating; sue me. Just stop feeding wild animals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kitchen-archeology/637869.md?page=1)