Column Chronicles: Adventurers claim people are living longer in the USA, part one

Adventurers claim people are living longer in the USA, part one

Frank Cotolo
October 28, 2021

From California to the New York island, life expectancy in America has climbed from 1918 to 2018, according to specific research completed recently by a team of adventurer-historians.

Rex Wells, Dix Donnigan and Skip Daze are hands-on guys in their late twenties who decided to include history research in their travels, which they do together all over the world.

"One day," said Rex, "we were stopped while having an adventure in Wyoming."

"What we didn't know," said Dix, "was we were having an adventure on a sacred Native American burial ground."

"When confronted with ancestors who kept the area clear of adventure," said Skip, "we apologized but became interested."

The grounds' caretaker, Rafael Sauce, told Rex, Dix and Skip the story of the tribe that lived in the area and how the U.S. Calvary slaughtered them and buried the dead on the spot of the battle, which took place in 1918.

Rex thought it odd that there was such a battle in 1918. Rex said, "Golly, Indians were still being killed that late?"

Dix said, "That was the same year as the deadly Spanish Flu."

"And the end of World War One," said Skip.

Sauce said, "You youngsters sure know a lot about history."

Rex, Dix and Skip agreed they knew a lot about history that they were unaware each other knew about. That night they committed to being historians as well as adventurers.

Their next three adventures took the trio to Alaska, where they had a great adventure on a raft in the Arctic Ocean. It was Skip's idea to have an adventure and write about the man who found Alaska, Vitus Bering.

Rex said, "I knew about Vitus and so did Dex, but when we learned Skip knew about him, too, we were convinced that becoming historians on our adventures was the right thing to do."

In their history report they wrote that Vitus Bering, a fur trader from Russia, started the first Alaskan settlement. It was 1741. However, Skip said, "He was Danish. We cleared that up for school kids studying American history."

After many adventures further documenting American history, the trio decided to do a study.

"We noticed," said Rex, "that aside from slaughter and murder and various diseases, American lives were getting longer after the Spanish Flu was over."

"So," said Dix, "we began having adventures where we could study the growing lifespan of Americans."

"Yes we did," said Skip, "and we will explain our results in part two."

...to be continued.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.