"Young and pregnant," is how Lynda Young described many residents of Elliot Lake in 1973 when she, her husband Dr. Fred Young, and their then three young children, came to town.
"When we first moved here, you never saw anyone with grey or white hair.
Prior to settling in Elliot Lake, indeed, prior even to arriving in town, the Youngs had decided they would not stay more than two years.
They had planned to move after Fred was established in the medical profession and they would have paid off some debt.
But before arriving, they found that, unlike today, some 50 years ago there weren't a lot of placements available for a young doctor just beginning a medical career.
Lynda recalls a train ride to Hornepayne in the middle of winter which turned out to be a very difficult journey,
"We took a ride to Hornepayne because the doctor there was advertising for a doctor. That was the worst ride of our life," she said. "We had three children in a compartment in a train. It was just awful. We left Ottawa. It was 30 degrees. We got to Hornepayne. It was -40 at night."
"Fred was all ready to stay there. He was happy."
But Lynda refused to make the move.
"They were going to give us a house and a car," she said. "But there wasn't anything to do."
Then there was Nova Scotia.
"Again the doctor wanted him but we couldn't find a house."
Another recruitment call came from Elliot Lake in 1973 which was in one of its growth phases due to expanding mining operations at the time.
"So we flew into Sudbury and then drove to Elliot Lake. It was really pretty. I couldn't get over how pretty the country was.," she said. "It was Dr. Moody that interviewed him and Dr. Wannan was here too. We stayed because there was lots of housing."
"The mines were just re-opening. We rented a house. They called it a 'main house'. It was Jane Lyons and she was Scottish. That was how she pronounced 'mine house'. Fred went to work right away. He worked day and night and I never saw him."
The Young family had arrived in the 'Uranium Capital of Canada'.
Two more children came along in the years that followed; Phillip and Tim.
Prior to that, Dr. Young interned at Ottawa Civic Hospital and Lynda, who took her nursing training at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, met her future husband at the hospital in Ottawa when they were both employed there.
When the Young family came to Elliot Lake there were two boys, Andrew; now owner/President Fireside Classic Grill, Fireside Food Shop, and Matthew; now an Air Canada pilot. Allison, then an infant, now lives in Ohio with her husband who is employed at the Cleveland Clinic.
"No wind and so much snow. It was in January or February when we came up. The smoke went straight up. I'd never seen that in the winter. It was so cold," Lynda said. "We stayed in the old Huron Lodge for the night before we had our house (on Mississauga)."
The lodge was where the mall is now.
"Fred went to turn on the tap in the bathroom and all rust came out. So funny," she said. "Anyway, the people were so nice. There were two or three other doctors living there. Dr. Long was there. I felt very comfortable once I got to know some of the neighbours."
There was at least one element of culture shock for the family after their move from Ottawa.
On summer weekends there was considerable drinking going on among a group of single men who turned out to be inmates who had come to town, seconded to work in the mines.
For a young mother pushing a stroller, with two young sons in tow, it was not a pleasant experience to watch empty beer bottles flying out the windows of a passing car.
"Those were the people who were driving by. They weren't mining people. They were people they brought up in the summer. And so it was kind of rough when you were raising kids," she said. "Then we bought a house on Macfarlane Road. There were plenty of kids living on the street and several police families. We were very happy."
The next addition to the Young family was Phillip, who is now East Algoma OPP Community Safety Officer. Then came Tim, an administrative employee City of Elliot Lake.
"There were more doctors that started moving in here. Some came in to join the clinic. So Fred didn't have to work so hard, which was nice," Lynda said. "When we left Ottawa, Matthew and Andrew were like five or seven or something and I'd go to the beach and everything was polluted."
When they moved to Elliot Lake she could take the children to the beach.
"It was really nice. The summers were beautiful. It was not as hot as Ottawa. It was a cool breeze. We just really liked it and we ended up staying forever."
They eventually bought a cottage on Dunlop Lake and then sold the house on MacFarlane after they built its replacement, a house located next to the cottage on Dunlop.
The Youngs have been in the house where they live now since 1987.
"It's really clean and easy to get around in town. Great, great family place," Lynda Young says of Elliot Lake. "I didn't like the population going up and down so much. That was hard. It was amazing that the city survived even after the mines shut down."
Lynda used to work for Elliot Lake Retirement Living noting it was good the non-profit corporation was able to make a lot of housing available to newcomers after the mine jobs dried up.
For her own children, she says, "They could do more than if we stayed in the big city because everything was cheaper. Matthew was in the swim club. He was on the national junior swim team for a short period of time."
"All the clubs are good here, the dancers, the swimmers."
But, the Youngs may be looking at a move in the future.
"I don't know if we're staying on the lake forever because this is a huge property."
Dr. Young recently retired having been a member of the Elliot Lake Family Health Team for many decades.
Lynda said Dr. Young has had a hard time trying to adjust to a new lifestyle.
"I'm going to have to teach him what to do," she said. "Men don't know what to do when they retire."