George Vanslyke (1887-1967) purchased a Model T in 1927 from the Carter Hardware Store in Stella, MO. 1927 was the last year that Ford produced the Model T.
Our first car was a 1927 Model T Ford- a demonstration model which the Carter Hardware Store at Stella, which had a Ford agency, sold Dad. I remember it costing $600, George says it was more like $365. Anyway Dad bought it at town one day and Mr. Carter drove it out home for him and gave him a driving lesson in the pasture west of the barn.
from the typed autobiography of Irene Vanslyke
Model T’s were so popular during their day, that Henry Ford chose not to engage in national advertising, though local dealers would advertise stock.
The only accident I remember Dad having with the car was one night when we started to Hazle Green to a pie supper. It was the first time Dad had driven the car at night and when we met another car the lights blinded him and they ran together. No one was hurt and the cars were both ok to drive. Probably both drivers were going 10 to 15 miles per hour. Mom who knew all the old superstitions had put her dress on the wrong side out, and had to change it when she getting ready to go and since that was a sign of bad luck I don’t know of her doing that ever again. If she put on a dress wrong side out she’d just take it off and wear a different one.
from typed autobiography of Irene Vanslyke
The paper advertised a pie supper at Hazel Green in 1928. Hazel Green was the one-room schoolhouse that Irene attended for the first four years of her education.
An Ozark box or pie supper presented to the uninitiated a deceptively simple format. When a community wanted to raise money for some worthy cause, they often decided to do so by means of a box or a pie supper. The women and girls baked pies or prepared box lunches, and everyone gathered at the local schoolhouse, where the pies or boxes were auctioned off to the men and boys present. Purchase of the pie or box brought with it the companionship of the girl who had prepared the item. The proceeds of the evening went to the chosen cause.
“Box and Pie Suppers”, Ozark Baptizings, Hangings, and Other Diversions, Robert K. Gilmore 1990
Pie-suppers were a cornerstone of Ozark tradition. They were used as a way to raise funds and build communities and were often used to fund the schools. Local schools were often underfunded due to low taxes. In her handwritten biography, Irene describes that her father wanted to consolidate schools despite the community’s opposition fearing higher taxes. The book, “Box and Pie Suppers”, describes how the funds from a pie supper would supplement a school with the “extra things that were necessary for good teaching. So the more progressive teachers would have pie suppers or box suppers, with a program, of course, to try and raise some money for books or extras.” (p. 109)
In 1933, The Neosho Times ran a line of news from Wanda (a town near George Vanslyke’s farm) that “The school is serving hot lunches now. The equipment was purchased with pie supper money”. In 1930, the newspaper ran another piece describing the pie supper at Northview: “The children of the school gave a program before the supper and store. The school house was crowded to overflowing. Proceeds will be used for school equipment.”
Finding the Yellow Bricks 