Use By Dates

Use by dates matter to me.  I understand most places make a use by date earlier than the use by date actually is, just to be on the safe side.  I do not take a chance though.  If something has reached its use by date it is out of here.
I think the milk bottles saw me coming recently though.  Early February I was getting a couple of cartons of milk.  I saw 21 and thought this milk has a good long-life span.  I only realized later that 21 was the year.
Only this morning did I come up with an answer to a question that has perplexed me.  When I say perplexed, it is not like I thought about it much at all, but when I did I would come back to the same point.  But I am slow.
I get tomato sauce.  I wondered, what was the point of getting a big one that had the same use by date as a small one?  I mean, that is no good as a refill.  It occurred to me this morning it would be worth it if several tomato sauce bottles were needed at the same time.
Some old stuff is good though.  I guess that is why vintage wines are desired.  I must admit though vintage drinks tend to remain unopened here.  I have stuff I inherited from dad and I do not even know what drink it is.  All I know it is old.
I do like old but mostly I like fresh better.  Sometimes even though we have bread we get a fresh loaf.  To me there are few things more satisfying than buttered fresh bread.  When I buy bread if the packet is warm, I think I can’t get much fresher than that.
Reminds me of a skit where a news editor has people coming to him with the latest news.  He would never be satisfied and responded with “I want fresh news.”  Finally, a guy comes to him and says, “explosion on 5ht Street.”  The editor says “when?”  He says, “listen.”
There are old lessons I have learned along the way. “It is not how close to danger you can go, but how far you can keep from it” and the two lettered classic “if it is to be it is up to me.”  Good stuff.  But I cannot live on old stuff.  Fresh keeps me alive.  Old is days or weeks or months or years - fresh is daily.
Thing have use by dates.  Old can be useful and memorable, but fresh keeps me alive now.