“Mom, why do we have things in the refrigerator that expired in 1999?”

“Like what?"

“Like this”

“What is it?”

“The label says 'relish.'”

“Oh, that’s Janis’s. She bought it for Tricia. Tricia was going to make potato salad, and Janis didn’t know whether Tricia liked to use sweet relish or dill relish. So she bought both.”

“What should I do with it.”

“Just throw it out.”

What's most striking to me about this conversation is not that we had decade-old relish in the refrigerator. What's most striking is that Pat had the back story for relish that expired in the year the Euro became the European currency and Panama took control of the Canal.