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| Taming a snake
Drew Turner, 10, of West Jefferson holds a corn snake that The Turtle Lady, Nancy Lockard, brought to the Ox Roast. Lockard has entertained and educated thousands of children and adults with her programs and displays of snakes, turtles and reptiles. |
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| Hailing a taxi cab
Cameron Minton, 2, of West Jefferson enjoys the taxi car ride at the Ox Roast. |
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| Taking the first bite
Blade Amodio, 12, of Columbus takes a bite of the first Ox Roast sandwich to be served at the 2008 festival. It was also his first Ox Roast sandwich and he liked the taste. |
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| First-time bull rider
Molena Mitchem, 13, of Grove City takes a turn on the mechanical bull at the West Jefferson Ox Roast over Labor Day weekend. It was her first time to ride a bull; the bull won. |
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| Preparing the roasts
Dr. Ralph Rohner, a West Jefferson Community Association trustee, and volunteer Donald “Bear” Haenszel prepare some of the 6,500 pounds of beef that went into making the Ox Roast’s famous sandwiches. Each roast is unwrapped, seasoned, rolled in heavy aluminum foil and repacked in boxes to move back to the Ox Roast grounds to wait for the fire to be lit and ready for the meat. The prep work was done on Sunday morning, Aug. 31, at West Jefferson High School. |
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| Digging in
Trinity Brown, 3, closes her eyes and takes a big bite of her watermelon in the watermelon-eating contest’s 8-and-under division. |
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| Tractor pulling
Taylor Fry, 5, daughter of Tonia and Tucker Fry, puts on her game face as she races down the runway in the 25-40 lb. division of the tractor pull sponsored by Duke Realty. Taylor finished her first try with a full pull; she ended up taking second-place with a pull of 28 feet 7 5/8 inches. |
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| Winning a bike
Blake Bailey is the winner of the children’s bicycle raffle sponsored by the West Jefferson Community Association and Albanese Amusements. The bike came from Young’s Cyclery in London. |
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| Tending the fire
Second attendant Taylor Sibbalds, Queen Coren Braithwaite and first attendant Autumn Brown stand in front of the Ox Roast pit after it was lit on Sunday evening. A total of 5,500 pounds of roast was put into the 140-foot long pit at 4:30 a.m. to cook until 2:30 p.m. on Monday to serve the famous Ox Roast Sandwiches on Monday. |
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| Taking the prize
Winners in the 8-and-under watermelon eating category are: (from left) Jacob Gollihue, 8, third place; Destiny Curry, 7, first place; and Jordan Rees, 7, second place. |
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| Delivering ice
Joe Fox, Cory Coburn and George Wendell stand outside the Ox Box as they prepare for their next round of ice delivery to the food vendors. With temperatures in the 90s, they delivered over 400 40-pound bags of ice during the Ox Roast. |
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| Singing strong
2007 Madison County Idol Contest winner Jessica Sprouse performs for the crowd during the Ox Roast prior to this year’s contest. |
