Smotherin'

"I was born in Douglas County, Georgia in my parents’ home on April 5, 1918. Dr. Claude Van Zant delivered me.
"The first thing I remember is the first spell of asthma I ever had. I was three years old. It was in the summertime. I remember that we was eating supper. They used to have the children stand up at the table with the chairs turned backwards. I was standing up like that and I started smothering.
"I got down and laid in front of the door, looking for air. Of course we didn't have no screens or nothing, back in them days.
"Mama run over to me and my oldest sister Bernice run down the street and got the doctor. He didn't live but just a few houses below us.
"He come back up there and worked with me a little bit, and said, 'Well, he's got asthma. Maybe he'll outgrow it.' But I still have it today." -- Carl Bishop
Read more about Carl's asthma attacks in W. Jeff Bishop's A Cold Coming, February 2013.