After my grandmother died (September 1995), we had to stop my dad from eating some of the jars of jelly and jam that he found in their food pantry. I should probably mention that most of it had expired before I was born (August 1977). Pretty much, the sugar had crystallized, but that was about it. I can’t imagine what my dad would do if we weren’t around to stop him sometimes.
I once opened a box of muffin mix and a moth flew out. I’d thought that only happened in cartoons.
When my grandmother (the one who died recently) went to a nursing home, the jars of Victory Tomatoes from 1943 were still in her basement. They were basically liquid (the tomatoes, I mean).
I left a cup of tea on top of my dresser before the whole family left for a six-week vacation. When we got back, it’d turned into a green sludge. But it smelled fine.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I once ate a Tic-Tac from 1985…I can’t recall the precise date I did this, but definitely sometime after the new millenium.
:o
When my grandfather died, we cleaned out his apartment to have the memorial there. He had many tins of those Danish Butter Cookies. They were very old, but for some reason it was assumed that they must be still good. I tried some; quite stale. But they were eaten by the guests anyway.
My mom gave me some food when I went off to college, including a jar of Skippy peanut butter. It stayed with me until a year after I was out of college, and was finally eaten by my housemate, who declared it perfectly good.
She also gave me a case of Top Ramen. (She seemed worried that I’d starve, apparently) I kept that for almost ten years. It was horribly stale when I finally threw it out.
Anyone else reminded of one of the extras on the “SuperSize Me” dvd with the fast food french fries that didn’t go bad, period?
Once upon a time, my father was busy salvaging some bits and pieces from a rental house he owned and was preparing to burn down (because burning it down was cheaper than dismantling it and had the bonus of giving the town Volunteer Fire Department some practice under real-life, yet non-essential circumstances). In the process he found a Twinkie in the way back corner of a cupboard dated (if I recall correctly) as expring in 1979. At the time it was approximately 1987. My father, after having read the label, ATE THE WHOLE TWINKIE. With my brother and I looking on in open-mouthed wonder.
This moment probably kept me from actually hating my father during my teenage years. Well, that and the fact that he let me do the actual lighting-the-house-on-fire bit (because I’d gotten straight A’s that semester in school - my brother was sooooooooooo jealous).