Ralph Vogelsang Memories - Dave’s Midwestern Ohio Memories

A Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s.

Ralph Vogelsang Memories

The recent Fish Report article from the Sidney Daily News about Vogelsang’s restaurant closing brought back many memories about the place and growing up in a small town like Ft. Loramie, where you know all the shop proprietors by name and they knew you. The SDN article included a photo of owner Ralph Volgelsang (shown right), whom I recall vividly, as he happened to be the father of my sister’s good friend, Helen. But that’s not the only reason Ralph sticks in my memory. One summer, I had the opportunity to work for Don Ruhenkamp Ditching & Escavating, and for lunch every day we’d go to Vogelsang’s to enjoy their $1.00 hot plate special. But there was one day I missed going wth the crew, as earlier that morning while digging out a basement at a home in Newport, we had an incident that kept me occupied during lunch.

My job was to drive the dump truck loaded with dirt from the basement to a low area adjacent to the woods behind Newport church where the dirt was dumped. Before we started digging, Don mentioned that there was a septic tank in the back yard of the home that should be avoided. Needless to say, his words of warning were forgotten as the morning progressed, because I drove right over it with a full load and suddenly felt a sinking feeling while finding myself looking up in the sky through the truck’s front window as the rear wheels broke through and sank into the septic tank, dumping half the load of dirt into the tank.

Don had a great sense of humor, as once the truck was lifted out of the septic tank with the help of his back hoe and found to have no damage, he laughed about it, but told me to clean the dirt out the septic tank while the rest of the crew headed to Vogelsang’s for lunch. On the way back, Don picked up a new septic tank lid from Harry Wendelin at Cast Stone Products north of Ft. Loramie. When the crew arrived back from lunch, I had the tank cleared of dirt and the pieces of the broken lid removed so the new lid could be installed as the odor from the tank and me was getting to be rather ominous. I stunk so bad, Don hosed me down right on the spot. And he never did deduct the cost of the lid from my pay! But for the rest of the summer, good ole’ Ralph Vogelsang called me Honey Dipper whenever I’d show up for lunch each day.