Madison Messenger - August 28th, 2022

PAGE 4 - MADISON MESSENGER - August 28, 2022
Sept. 3-5, 2022
Ox Roast
WEST JEFFERSON
www.madisonmessengernews.com
Garrette Park
Schedule of events
Saturday, Sept. 3
12-10 p.m.–Vendors, crafts, bounce houses and games
12 p.m.–Parade
1:30 p.m.–Visiting festival queens promoting area festivals at West
Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage
2 p.m.–Queens luncheon at West Jefferson High School
3-4 p.m.–Escape artist Michael Griffin at West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers
Pizza Stage (sponsor: Hurt-Battelle Memorial Library)
4 p.m.–Pie eating contest at West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza
Stage (sponsors: Front Row Sports Bar and The Vape Shop)
5 p.m.–Queens contest (Little Miss, Jr. Miss and Miss Ox Roast) at
West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage
7 p.m.–Watermelon eating contest - West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers
Pizza Stage (sponsors: Circle S Farms and Midnight Creationz)
7-9 p.m.–Ox Roast Dance at Garrette Park (sponsor: Village of
West Jefferson Parks and Recreation)
7:30 p.m.–West Jefferson High School Jazz Band at West Jefferson
Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage
9 p.m.–Pie auction at West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage
Sunday, Sept. 4
9 a.m.–Community Church Service at West Jefferson
Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage
12-10 p.m.–Vendors, crafts, bounce houses and games
1:30 p.m.–Donut hole eating contest at West Jefferson
Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage (sponsor: The Daily Buzz)
2 p.m.–Victorious KayBirds band at West Jefferson Hardware/
Flyers Pizza Stage (sponsor: WJ Plumbing & Heating)
3 p.m.–Kiddie tractor pull signups
3:30 p.m.–Kiddie tractor pull at Sandwich Serving Shelter (sponsor:
Madison Health)
5 p.m.–Hot dog eating contest at Sandwich Serving Tent (sponsors:
Ray Martin and Linda Hall)
5:30 p.m.–Lighting of the pit
5:30 - 10 p.m.–Our Short Years band at West Jefferson
Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage (sponsor: National Road Bar)
Monday, Sept. 5
7 a.m.–Ox Roast Bicycle Tour at Ox Roast Grounds
8 a.m.–Running of the Ox 5K & 1-mile run/walk at West Jefferson
High School
10 a.m.-3 p.m.– Cruis’in West Jefferson Car Show at top of hill
(sponsor: Rader, McDonald and Tidd Funeral Home)
11 a.m.-7 p.m.–Vendors, crafts, bounce houses and games
11 a.m.–Oxy Baby, Oxy Tot and Oxy Sweethearts Contest at West
Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage
11:30 a.m.–Ox Roast sandwich tickets go on sale at Ox Box
12-6:30 p.m.–Serving of Ox Roast sandwiches at Sandwich Shelter
(behind West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza Stage)
1:30 p.m.–Ice cream eating contest at West Jeff Hardware/Flyers
Pizza Stage (sponsor: Peterman Tree & Lawn Service)
2-4 p.m.–For What It’s Worth band at West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers
Pizza Stage (sponsor: IBEW)
4:30 p.m.–Raffle drawing at West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers Pizza
Stage
5-7 p.m.–MLC Project band at West Jefferson Hardware/Flyers
Pizza Stage (sponsor: The Brenneman Family)
7:30 p.m.–Auction of Ox Roast beef at Sandwich Shelter
Bounce house wrist bracelets for all day ($10)
Grand marshal: Dr. Rohner
By Kristy Zurbrick
Madison Editor
Dr. Ralph Rohner Jr. knows a thing or two
about putting on an Ox Roast, just one of many
reasons he has been named grand marshal of
this year’s Ox Roast parade.
Ralph’s history with the Labor Day weekend
festival dates back to 1980, the year he and his
wife, the late Karen Rohner, moved to West Jefferson.
“We joined Sts. Simon & Jude Church where
we met Rudy and Joan Denes who got us into the
Community Association,” Rohner said.
The West Jefferson Community Association
hosts the Ox Roast, now in its 71st year. Ralph
was elected to the group’s board of trustees in the
fall of 1980 and remained on the board until
2013. He served three years as president.
During Ralph’s time on the board, the festival
evolved as organizers added stage shows to the
entertainment schedule, opened up space at Garrette
Park for craft booths, and expanded vendor
opportunities to commercial entities to complement
the local groups who set up shop at the festival.
While the cooking process for the famous Ox
Roast sandwiches has remained the same—beef
seasoned and wrapped in foil and set over coals
in a long, in-ground trench to cook overnight—
Ralph said a change was made back in the day
to make the meat preparation a little more efficient.
“We used to buy the meat on the bone, so we
spent Sunday cutting it off the bone, trimming
the fat, rolling it in spices and wrapping it in
foil,” he recalled. “Then we moved to Falters
(Fine Meats) who cut the meat off the bone for
us.”
The preparation process is still a herculean
chore, but association members and other folks
volunteer to get it—and the many other tasks it
takes to put on the four-day festival—done.
For many years, Ralph helped to man “The
Big 6,” a gambling wheel, at the festival where
the maximum bet was 25 cents. He and Karen
also worked the bingo tent.
“Oh, we had big prizes at the bingo tent. We
gave out watermelons!” he said with a chuckle.
Ralph cherishes the many friendships he
made during his time with the community association
and the many memories made at the Ox
Roast.
“Every year, when we closed up the festival
on Monday night, it was a feeling of relief and accomplishment,”
he said.
The Ox Roast isn’t the only thing Ralph
knows a thing or two about. He spent decades as
an orthopedic surgery specialist, operating a private
practice in Columbus from 1971 until his retirement
on Dec. 31, 2020.
Ralph was born in Columbus and raised in
German Village in the house his great-grandparents
built. He graduated from high school in
Messenger photo by Kristy Zurbrick
Dr. Ralph Rohner Jr., a longtime West Jefferson resident, will
serve as grand marshal of this year’s Ox Roast parade.
1956 and from Capital University with a degree in biology in
1960.
“I started as a physics major, but I was disenchanted with
mechanical drawing, so I went into biology because I’ve always
been interested in plants and animals,” he said.
That interest remains strong to this day, as Ralph shares
his home and property with three peacocks, two peahens, a
rooster, eight chickens, three dogs, two cockatoos, two lovebirds,
one canary, and a fox.
Ralph considered going to veterinary school after college,
but his father, who was in orthopedics, convinced him to go to
medical school. Ralph did not plan to go into orthopedics, but
he was assigned to a stint in that specialty his sophomore year
at the Ohio State University (OSU) School of Medicine.
“I don’t know if my dad had anything to do with that (assignment)
or not, but I just stayed with it,” he said with another
chuckle.
While in medical school, Ralph worked as an extern at
Riverside Methodist Hospital where he met Karen who was a
student at Riverside’s White Cross School of Nursing. They exchanged
vows in 1964, the same year Ralph graduated from
OSU. Ralph served two years in the U.S. Air Force, and the
couple raised four children, Ralph III, Laura, Marc, and
Christopher. Ralph is now grandpa to five grandchildren, five
step-grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and another
great-grandchild on the way.
Visitors to this year’s Ox Roast can watch and cheer for
Ralph as he heads up the parade at noon on Sept. 3. The festival
runs Sept. 3-5.