Hanover Chili Cookoff Memories

   Hope everyone is doing well after the lashing that Irene gave us. I’m writing this on Sat., so I’m hoping it skirts us and only washes the scum of Jersey away. But this coming weekend is Labor Day weekend, and in Hanover that means only one thing: The Hanover Chili Cookoff
     Started way back in 1995, the Hanover Chili Cookoff has grown from just a few dozen entries to being the largest International Chili Society (ICS) this side of the Mississippi River; rather impressive for our little borough. This is not intended to be a total history of the event. Look at it as a retrospective with a slightly heady view.
     I’ve been to every cookoff save for the one in 2005. That year I attended the headiest wedding I’ve ever been to in Asheville, NC. It was for my friend Kristin Kuhn Weeks. It will hold this title until Christine marries Michael Franti.
     Believe it or not, Devolver is part of the chili cookoff tradition. Since 2003 (I think), Devolver has played the Sat before. However, last year was probably the last time they will do that; attendance was pretty weak. I’m gonna chalk this up to the fact that people are older and wiser and need to save their strength for Sunday’s activities. They had a huge crowd the Friday after Thanksgiving. I always joked that I wanted to walk out of Kclinger’s, pass out in the ball field and wake up when the cookoff began. I can attest to a few years of watching the sunrise after the show and somehow dragging my ass to the cookoff. Let’s just saw that there was a lot of chemical enhancement. Thank The Buddha I don’t mess with that shit anymore.
    In 1999, I was part of a capitalist venture called Heeva Haava. My friend’s Watson and Binford started this company. It was essentially a ripoff of Napster. They got an investor to drop 50000 bucks on this. Part of that money went to buying an incredible amount of shirts. 5 bucks says Zach is wearing one right now. They also were a sponsor of the cookoff and had a tent. Binford’s plan was to show how easily one could download music off the Internet (remember, this was 1999) and burn it to a CD.
    He was really unprepared. He didn’t have any Cd's ripped. He had no Internet connection.  A hurricane hit our area that weekend. It wasn’t at full strength but I can vividly remember seeing the bands rotate overhead. Light rain and then heavy rain. All afternoon that went on. The investor stopped by. He was underwhelmed, to say the least. Yup, 50 grand on a tent and cookoff sponsership. I know somewhere we have a great picture of a very pregnant Karen Driscoll with headphones around her belly.
     So please come out and help support a good cause this weekend. It raises money for the HART Center among other charities.  It sure has evolved from a few dozen cooks to yearly event it is now. They have VIP packages with front row parking. I have my own VIP package, it’s called walking from my crib. 

Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll