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The spring of 1942 found Gordon and Lois living in the back of Houcke's General Store in St. Pauls. While they did have the luxury of being on their own, they and their two girls, both under the age of four, were living in three rooms with no toilet, no running water, no fridge and certainly no phone. As an added complication, Lois had recently realized -- against all doctor's orders -- that she was pregnant. In May when the various schools would begin advertising for teachers for the following September Gordon would go out into the store to read through the want ads. Here is the London Free Press from 30 May 1942. (Remember, if you double click on it, you can enlarge it.) I am sure that the idea of a house, a garden, and a garage as advertised by the trustees of SS#3 North Oxford was immensely appealing. Since they already needed to drive into London for a doctor's appointment Gordon said: "We will go early and take a look at the place." They knew that Highway 2 ran through Woodstock in Oxford County so they started their search for the school there. When Gordon enquired in Woodstock no one had heard of Erwood Kerr. However, in Ingersoll Gordon had better luck and was given precise directions to follow Highway 2 until Dickson's Corners where he would see the school and the house. He was to turn right and Erwood Kerr lived on the farm with the big red brick house on the left just past the second concession road. When Gordon knocked on Erwood's door Mrs. Kerr and the two boys were eating lunch. Erwood was absent. "You will likely find him in the barn having a sleep in the hay mound." Once roused, Erwood said they would have to drive up to talk to Walter Hutchison. While Gordon was introduced to Walt, Lois and the girls waited in the car. Walt's wife Bernice who still had her hair in curlers ran out to the car -- despite her daughter's protestations --- "to say hello because this may be the new teacher's wife." Jack Butterworth was the third trustee who would make the hiring decision and they agreed to meet with him at the school house. At the school Gordon told the trustees " I want a lot more than your last teacher got" and asked for a 200 dollar raise to $1200 per year. The trustees suggested that Gordon look over the cottage while they made a decision. Lois remembers the cottage as pretty dilapidated. The grass hadn't been cut for weeks because the last teacher had moved out in the early spring, the inside of the house was shabby, and of course the garden was nonexistent. However, it was a house, and it could be theirs! It even had a verandah. The trustees offered the job to Gordon, and hired Lois to be the caretaker at $200 per year. And that began 10 happy, happy years where there was little money but lots of good friends, deep relationships, and as Lois expresses it, "lots of fun and good laughs".