BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[Chili]](/editions/1998/08/31/chili_180x154.jpg)
Chuck Shelton fees "jackalope" chili to his wife, Pat, at the 1998 Kentucky State Championship Chili Cook-Off and Car Show.
(Patrick Reddy photo)
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NEWPORT -- On a sultry Sunday summer afternoon, beneath the shade created by the awning of The Brass Lounge, sat "Murph."
The Colerain Township man sat in a folding chair next to his cooler, which offered him reprieve from the weather.
It was his first visit to the Kentucky State Championship Chili Cook-Off & Car Show, in its ninth year.
He had just entered his red 1957 Chevy in the car show after learning about the event Saturday. He estimated his "toy" is worth $12,000, up from the $4,000 he paid for it 15 years ago.
Across the way from Murph on Monmouth Street was Cindy Miller and her gold 1968 Mercury Cougar with a stuffed cougar atop. It is ironic that she owns the car her grandparents bought, she said, because the motto for the car back in the '60s was, "Mercury, the man's car."
The Norwood woman said she plans to keep the car in the family by passing it down.
"It's a car that a lot of kids bought in the '60s and they end up in the junk yard," she said with obvious dismay.
As a little boy on a bicycle edged closer to Jeff Davis' 1992 Chevy pickup, the Edgewood man jumped from his seat as if trying to catch a glass falling off a shelf. He warned the kid not to get too close to the truck.
Asked why he reacted so frantically, he said, "Well, I don't want anybody touching it." He estimated that he dusted the truck about 36 times Sunday.
Farther down the block, under a red tent that housed a makeshift kitchenette and his stewing chili, Jim Deere said he chose Newport's chili cook-off over one in Chicago on Sunday.
"I have more fun here than I do at the one in Chicago," said Mr. Deere, who made the six-hour drive from Pana, Ill., on Saturday. It was his fourth or fifth year competing here, he said.
Bob Leopold of Ross, Ky., clutching a cold Miller Genuine Draft, said any time you can walk around a street in Newport with an open container -- if only for a few hours -- it's a good day.
Along the block, others spent the day doing karaoke, checking out the more than 200 cars and trucks and, of course, sampling the 20 kinds of secret-recipe chili.
Tim Becker won first place and $700 in the chili cook-off. Mr. Becker will compete in October in Las Vegas at the International Chili Society World Championship.
Bill Donovan won first place and $200 in the sportsmanship category. All proceeds from the event go to the Buenger Boys & Girls Club.
![[Chili]](/editions/1998/08/31/chili_550x470.jpg)