Tyler Miller, head cook and Mesopotamia fire fighter, spreads hot coals under rounds of beef on the spit. The beef cooks for 8 to 10 hours before it's served.

MESOPOTAMIA — The meat went on the spits early Thursday morning, but the eight- to 10-hour roasted beef is not the only reason some 20,000 to 30,000 people attend the Mespo Ox Roast daily — it’s the historical setting, childhood memories and a 46-year tradition, Mesopotamia fire Chief Jamie Loza said.

Joe Pavlik, Mespotamia fire chief for a quarter of a century before passing the torch to Loza two years ago, has been at the ox roast since the beginning, he said. He was 19 when he started volunteering at the event.

“When it first started, we would park cars on the south end (of the commons). There were maybe 50 vendors,” Pavlik said. He said there was only one spit for the meat, and it was turned by hand every 15 minutes.

“After the 10th year, all of a sudden it took off, and the rest is history,” he said.

The Mesopotamia Commons held193 vendors this year. Two motorized spits turned rounds of beef, and Pavlik said the way the food is prepared and served was updated long ago. Volunteers no longer slice potatoes by hand.

But at its heart, the Ox Roast hasn’t really changed — offering the same atmosphere and some of the same vendors.

Adelle Womer of New Castle, Pa., said her parents started selling cotton candy out of tent at the Ox Roast more than 40 years ago. Womer and her husband, Thomas, became involved after her father passed away, and for more than 30 years, it’s been a family affair.

“We would come up with just a camper and park near the cemetery,” said Womer of her early Ox Roast years. “We had no electricity, no water. We’d take sponge baths.”

The Ox Roast is the only event the Womers do, and Adelle said it’s the people who keep them coming back.

“This is too much work for just anywhere,” Womer said.

Mary Cain Mann, who began selling lemonade at the roast when she was 7, carries on the tradition of her grandparents, Dorothy and Everett, who built their stand in 1973. Her current lemonade trailer, built in 2007, sports a “D & E” in their honor.

“It’s not just workers who are generational, it’s the drinkers who are generational,” Mann said. “I’ve watched some of them grow up.”

Erin Croyle, now living in Ithica, N.Y., said she grew up attending the Ox Roast, and she felt like she was reliving her childhood days.

“It’s bittersweet, because a lot has changed,” said Croyle, though she said the area had changed more than the Ox Roast. She brought her husband, Daniel, and their three children to the event.

The roast is put on by the Mesopotamia Volunteer Firemen’s Association and is the department’s biggest fundraiser, according to Loza. Last year, before paying necessary expenses, they brought in more than $127,000. Loza said in addition to roast beef sandwich profits, the other 10 food vendors on site give the department 15 percent of their profits.

The roast beef tent is staffed entirely by volunteers, many of whom are firefighters or family and friends of firefighters, Loza said.

“We all know when it’s Ox Roast time, we’ll all be here,” he said.

The event runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.