HARPERSFIELD - The annual Barbecued Beef Dinner, sponsored by the Colonel Harper Grange, is a tradition that has been shared by generations over at least the last 75 years. There are new generations barbecuing the beef and making the "secret" sauce, but it remains a favorite event of summer.
The Page family has long been a part of the tradition. I have not missed a beef barbecue since I was quite small. In those days you had to know someone to get tickets and my parents often extended an invitation to only the closest family members or friends and summer vacations were sometimes planned around the dinner.
"We used to try to make it back to New York so we could attend the barbecue," said Art Page. He remembers how we used to groan as kids when we saw how long the line was outside the grange hall. However, as we got older, we began to understand that was part of the attraction, seeing people you only saw that one time per year and socializing while you waited your turn.
Once inside I was always relieved to sit with someone we knew, but that didn't always happen, so it was also a place to meet new folks. They would call out there was a spot for two, or four or however many needed to complete a table. The tables were always full and if you waited tables, you kept a table of ten supplied with all they could eat and you did five seatings. You got your exercise going back and forth to the kitchen. The meal, if you had enough room left, was topped off with homemade pie, of several varieties. Some asked for recommendations or they would see their favorite pass by for another table and put in an order.
Dave Ogborn believes the dinner started in 1955, but it may have been as early as 1949. Know one will swear on a bible, but it has been going on for a very long time. He said Jay Silvernail and Joe Davenport were among the original grangers who were looking for a good fundraiser. He believes they may have also helped the Franklin Grange for a couple of years as well. Both were active grange members who have long since passed, but they started something that continues to be the largest fundraiser for the Colonel Harper Grange, despite changes over the years.
We were on Jay Silvernail's ticket list. He had a list of his customers who got "first dibs" on the tickets, before they were offered to anyone else. When Mr. Silvernail passed, we were taken over by Harold Bedford.
Ogborn said it truly is a "secret" sauce, successfully concocted, he believes, by Jay Silvernail and Leta Adair. Those who prepare it are sworn not to give it out.
"It is really amazing how people came back year after year," said Ogborn. "We lost some people when we moved to take-out only, due the pandemic, but we have still managed to keep it going."
He thanks grange neighbor Ted Dziewit for helping them over the years and was the main reason they were able to continue the dinner through the pandemic, by allowing them to use his property.
What hasn't changed is the slow cooking of the beef on spits over an open fire pit. "They used to crank the meat by hand all day long," said Ogborn. He remembers Leonard Adair was one of the members who would tend to the basting and cranking throughout the day. There were four rods of meat or 700 pounds of beef cooked. They sold 800 tickets.
Now they sell around 500 tickets. No longer doing the sit-down family-style has hurt them, according to Ogborn, but it was a very labor intensive undertaking. Even with the take-outs, it takes everyone to pull it off. They work like a well-oiled machine and it is all hands on deck, plus a few volunteers.
Rich Beers remembers being recruited by Joe Davenport and his wife, Grace, as a kid, to help wait tables. He said that was before the current grange was built and meetings were held at the North Harpersfield Grange.
As an adult, he has always purchased tickets. "You can't beat it, taste-wise. It's just so good. They do it the old fashioned way. They work hard at it and it is for a good cau