Jeanne McDermott just planned on having a piece of toast Tuesday morning. That was all.

But before she popped a slice of the Franz Old-Fashioned white bread into the toaster, she glanced at the expiration date on the package.

She stopped.

She looked again.

She would not be eating this bread for sustenance.

This was certainly not the bread of life.

"I thought, 'Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. This can't be,'" she said.

It was.

Because there, in bold blue ink against clear plastic, was this health warning: BEST BY MAY 17, 1955.

That would make these slices more than 56 years old. Unlikely, considering that the loaf wasn't petrified, crusty, or covered with black mold.

Still, what about a miracle? Could just a few pieces somehow feed thousands?

"I'm sure it's not that old," McDermott said. "It's a misprint of some type. It's just so weird. It's just like it was printed yesterday."

She received the free loaf Monday night at the Lake City Center, where such grocery items near their expiration date are given out.

She called Tuesday and asked if others had received equally ancient bread. Nope. She was the only one.

"They offered, if I bring it down they'd give me another loaf, but this is kind of a funny thing to keep," McDermott said. "I don't want to bring it back. I should preserve and put in the freezer for another 50 years."

Amy Watkins, coordinator of the center's Meals on Wheels program, said they receive outdated bread and other bakery items from a grocery store. This was the first loaf that was reportedly more than a half-century old.

"It should be pretty hardy by now," she said, laughing. "It's definitely the oldest bread we've had."

Watkins said she wasn't sure how the elderly edible managed to pass from the ovens of the bread factory to the truck of the delivery man to the shelves of the grocer and through the doors of the Coeur d'Alene center, without anyone noting the date.

"We were saving it for a special occasion," she said, chuckling.

McDermott, a regular bingo player at the Lake City Center, said she didn't sample the bread, which still appeared soft and white inside the wrapping. The label promotes it as "the good bread," with three grams of proteins and calcium, too, but she's not biting.

"I'm not that brave," McDermott said, smiling.

Instead, she plans to toss the bread into the trash, but will keep the plastic bag but a keepsake of sorts. Or, maybe she'll take it on the road and pitch it to the folks on "Pawn Stars."

"Boy, is it old-fashioned," she joked.

McDermott said she'll probably continue to accept the free, old bread at the Lake City Center. But one thing is certain before she turns it for nourishment.

"I'll check the dates very carefully first."