COEUR d'ALENE - Roy and Vivian Wargi have no problems saying what's on their minds.

They'll tell you the good and the bad. When you've been married 69 years and are celebrating a 90th birthday, what the hell, that's OK. They've earned it.

Ask about their four kids. Sure, they love them, but they'll say they don't speak to a few of them.

"We try to help them," Vivian says. "They don't do the right thing."

And then there's a sibling of Vivian's, well, let's say they aren't calling each other daily, either.

"There's a sister I don't have anything to do with," Vivian says as she sits on the couch in the living room of their Coeur d'Alene home.

Ask Roy about his business ventures.

There was a brother he started a mechanic shop with when they were young men, but they went their separate ways when they didn't agree on a new venture.

Another business he worked for, "went along pretty good. But them buggers, they beat me out of some money."

Listening just to that, you might think they're a cranky old couple unhappy with the world and their lot in life.

You would be wrong.

The Wargis just call it as they see it.

Spry, energetic, entertaining, are words one could use to describe them.

Mostly, they prefer sharing their laughter, smiles and love.

"He takes care of me," Vivian says, as she reaches out to hold her husband's hand.

"He does the cooking and washes the dishes and I'll take and put the dishes away."

Roy, asked if he's a good cook, chuckles.

"I'm still alive," he says, grinning.

Both are in pretty good health, really, and as recently as a few years ago were riding snowmobiles.

An accident brought an end to it, Vivian notes.

"He crashed, and I was behind him and him and the snowmobile landed on me," she says, her eyes beaming with delight as she tells the tale.

These days, they usually stay home and stay busy.

Each has their job.

"She tells me what to do for her," Roy says, laughing.

"That's right," Vivian says.

Birthdays, miracles and anniversaries

The Wargis are in a mood to party. Vivian turned 90 on Thursday, so they had family over for cake, ice cream and song. A call to her twin sister, Violet, over in Bremerton, Wash., was on the to-do list.

They'll mark their 70th anniversary next month, April 4.

Vivian's spirits are high as she explains her secrets to longevity.

"You think young all the time. People ask me how old I am. I tell them 60. I say, 'I feel good.' I say, 'You want me to get on the table and dance for you?'"

She would.

Play with children and grandchildren, she adds.

"Don't ignore any of them. They keep you young."

Roy, a trim, fit 91 years old, gets around just fine, does the driving, and carries out small work projects.

"The good Lord is taking care of me. That's the only thing you can depend on," he says.

Roy recounts a story of his service with the Army in World War II as evidence of a blessed life. He was in the Battle of the Bulge, and saw his friends fall around him during the German attack.

"I had people killed that I can reach out and touch and I never got scratched. I was close," he says.

How close? Enough that a piece of shrapnel sliced across his chest, cutting his wool shirt, sweater, field jacket and overcoat.

Another inch or two, Roy says, he would have been killed.

"It looked like a mouse chewed it up. A medic happened to be close to me. He said 'Lay down,' and I did. He went through everything, all my clothing. Not a scratch on me."

"Thank the Lord," Vivian says.

The Wargis designed and built their home in 1952 on four lots they bought on a corner lot in Coeur d'Alene. They even used five giant pine trees on the land for their two-story house.

Roy, a handyman, did most of the work like pouring the foundation and putting up the walls, the roof and the framing.

Vivian helped.

"She did a lot, I'll tell you that."

Roy is a bit of a perfectionist.

He put in the hardwood floors, and every board was drilled before a nail was put in it so it didn't split.

"There's not a squeak in it," he says with a proud smile.

A good chunk of their yard is dedicating to their garden, where they grow potatoes, squash, beets and carrots.

They're wild about picking and eating huckleberries, but there is a spot by Spokane they avoid.

"They were shooting at people if they come over there from a different place, and chase them away."

She doesn't like the idea of being shot at.

"I won't go over there," Vivian says with a shrug.

Together

Roy was born in Hayden Lake. Vivian, in Wallace.

He first dated Violet, Vivian's twin.

"Her sister kind of gave up on me, I guess," Roy says, laughing.

Vivian glances at her husband.

"I'm always quiet," she says.

Eventually, they found each other, although neither was sure exactly what kindled their relationship.

"He was helping me with math," Vivian says

"I thought she was a nice girl, good-looking, not stuck up with lipstick and all that," Roy says.

They were married April 4, 1942.

A few years later, came World War II.

Roy survived - barely - and returned home. He worked in mechanics and the timber industry. Vivian handled book keeping for Roy's business ventures and raised four children.

"I used to sit up until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning doing book work. And I got $100 a month for doing the books," she said.

They never had much money.

The most Roy made in a year was $36,000 while he was with Diamond International

He stands, pulls out his wallet and walks across the room. He pulls out a wrinkled, worn black and white photo.

It is a picture of a young Vivian, eyes beaming, flashing a relaxed, girl-next-door smile.

"I carried that with me when I was in the service," he says.

Later, he had it sealed in plastic to preserve it.

Vivian looks at it and jokes. Her brunette hair flows over her shoulders in the pictures.

"I haven't had my hair done in a long time," she says, reaching up to run her hand down her long, gray hair.

No need, according to Roy.

"It's beautiful," he says.