Love story: The Swans build a dozen houses, and a strong foundation in 60-year marriage

In the days of full-service gas stations, you could gas up your car, get your windows washed, your tires checked – and if you were lucky, like George Swan, you might even get a tip on where to meet a pretty girl.

It was 1957, and when George, newly returned from a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force, pulled his ’57 red-and-white Buick in for a fill-up, the attendants at the Coeur d’Alene station would tease him about his lack of a girlfriend.

“You ought to go see the blonde on the second floor across the street,” they told him.

He thought it might be a joke and that he’d find an elderly lady working at the law office, but one afternoon George decided to see for himself.

He peeked in the door and saw Ruth Shaw, 19, a Coeur d’ Alene High School graduate, behind the desk.

“May I help you?” she asked.

“I’m here to talk to you,” George replied.

They chatted awhile, and he quickly asked her to go bowling with him that night.

She agreed.

“I tried to drop a bowling ball on his foot!” she recalled, laughing.

His foot remained intact, and he asked her for a second date. They drove into Spokane and saw “Love in the Afternoon” at the State Theater, now the Bing Crosby Theater.

Despite the romantic movie, Ruth said, “I went out with him five times before he held my hand! It drove me crazy!”

However, by December their romance was in full bloom, and when George showed up with a large box at Christmas, she hoped to find a smaller box tucked inside.

“I went to my room to open it,” she said. “It was a red dress. I went through the box and found a necklace and some earrings, but nothing else.”

She took a deep breath, went out to the living room, sat on his lap and told him that she loved him.

George replied, “Then I’ll give you this,” and pulled a ring from his pocket and placed it on her finger.

When spring arrived, George was laid off from his job with the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Ruth lost her job at the law office. They’d already purchased a tiny home in Opportunity for $3,800.

Neither of their families could afford a fancy wedding, so on June 8, 1958, Ruth put on her red dress and the jewelry George had given her for Christmas.

“We went on a date,” she said. “We drove to Superior, Montana, and got married by a justice of the peace.”

Then they went to a movie and had “wedding hamburgers” at Zip’s.

George dropped her off at her home and then drove to his parents’ house. Two weeks passed before they told anyone they were married.

“His mom figured it out,” Ruth said. “We told my mom when we were moving my bed to our house in Opportunity. She said, ‘You’re not living in that house until you’re married,’ so I showed her the ring.”

Money was tight. They sold the Buick to get by, and then the babies started coming. Valerie in 1959, followed by Leanne in ’61 and Kimberley in ’62.

“Three kids in a little, tiny, two-bedroom house,” Ruth said. “I washed diapers on a washboard.”

But it turned out George was handy with a hammer. By the time son Kenneth completed the family in 1964, George had built them a new home.

He bought 20 acres off Progress Road in Spokane Valley.

“It had a shack on a slab,” Ruth said.

It also had a few outbuildings, and they christened it the “Raunchy Ranch.”

They bought four steers and planted alfalfa, and then George built more houses.

He had time to build due to frequent layoffs from the railroad.

“I think it took 12 years before I worked a full year without being laid off,” he recalled. “It was a bad time to be in the railroad because diesels were replacing steam engines and that meant they needed fewer people.”

So he used his homebuilding skills to create a subdivision, “Swan Acres,” on the land he’d purchased.

And Ruth was by his side.

“I helped hold the rafters, raised walls, held soffits, and wore out a pair of jeans sliding down the roof we were nailing,” she said.

George shook his head.

“Any other woman would have walked out on me!”

He teased her that every time she got a house dirty, he built her a new one. They built a dozen houses in all, including homes for their daughters.

George retired from the railroad in 1995, having worked his way from fireman to engineer, and at 65 built the home they live in.

“She won’t let me build another one,” he said, shrugging.

Their eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren bring them joy.

“There are two more ‘greats’ on the way,” Ruth said.

She credits some advice from her mother for their 60-year union.

“We’ve never had a fight,” Ruth said. “We may have exchanged sharp words, but my mother told us, ‘It takes two to make a fight. If one keeps their mouth shut, the other will run out of words.’ ”

George, 85, said choosing well is equally important.

“Find a good woman,” he said. “I picked the only one for me.”

Then he grinned.

“The trial period went OK,” he said.

Ruth, 81, laughed.

“He says he’ll probably keep me around.”