Parsley

There are some things that a cook adds to a recipe in order to express something about themselves and the dish....
For my mom, I think parsley did this.
Does anyone know how long dried parsley lasts? Is there a point where it adds nothing to the dish because it has been around too long?
My father, Eugene, returned from a salvage auction in Philly with a chest which I still have in my study.
Eugene searched long and hard to find a "deal", a quick buck, something for nothing, a time and a place where he could find something that would change his downward slide....
It didn't happen, but he did arrive home with some interesting stuff....like the huge can of parsley that we found in the locked trunk... after we broke it open.
Who would have thought that anyone would lock parsley in a trunk anyway?
But there it was, a surplus of WWII, in an olive green can....a huge olive green can with U.S. government all over it.
From what I remember, Mom was still using that government issue parsley for ten to fifteen years after Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge.
It seemed to me that everything about WWII was done on a big scale: the invasions, the weapons, the number of soldiers ....even cooking ingredients!
And I thought it was cool that even army chefs would use olive drab containers.
It's funny to me that of all the other things that came out of that trunk, the only thing I remember is the
parsley.
This parsley was not an everyday ingredient in our house. I always got the vibe that mom used it when she wanted to announce that the dish being prepared was special. So, the parsley stash was whipped out at Thanksgiving or Christmas....times when flamboyant ingredients were called for, and everything available that might add to the turkey's bread stuffing was poured in without conscience.
My mom offered up sage in the same reckless way officers threw their men into the heat of a battle.
The can of parsley outlasted Eugene's presence in our house. The last Christmas it was used, Eugene had probably already died from pneumonia he caught in a rat trap apartment somewhere around Lafayette Square.
Even now, whenever I use parsley in a chicken and sausage gumbo or a soup, I think about Eugene, and the trunk, and its precious contents...and in this sense it has lasted a very long time.
I must also confess that I too search long and hard to find a "deal". Realizing that there is no quick buck, no something for nothing, and no time or place where I can find some material thing that will change my downward slide.... These are lessons that I still struggle with.
I think we all have spices that we use with attitude in every part of our lives.
But for a time, it was parsley in our family...probably more attitude than taste. The Irish Channel was like that.