Wow, sounds like me, only I know it's Pennsic in my case. I'm allergic, it turns out, to smoke. Not very allergic, mind you; years in which there was enough rain, I didn't have a problem. But other years, and that's most of them for over a decade, I'd wind up with a 3-week-long asthma attack starting on about my seventh day at the War. Since I had no history of asthma or other repiratory illnesses, I kept thinking, "Man, I always pick up the worst colds at the War!" until the light dawned.