As I write this it is snowing and I am reminded of our first winter living in Federal Way. This was long before the shopping metropolis it is now, long before incorporation, long before Interstate 5. In fact it was 1940 and my new bride and I had found a run down summer place on the north shore of Star Lake off 272nd. It rented for only $15 bucks a month and we were dazzled by the knotty pine paneling throughout the one bedroom charmer and the big fieldstone fireplace in the big living room. Sure, it had a slight slope in the floor and we didn't notice that it had no heating system except the huge wood stove in the kitchen. It had coils in the firebox and a hot water tank. But, no fire also meant any hot water. The bathroom opened out in to the kitchen and had no shower but it did have a tub big enough to hold two newlyweds.

The idea that we might have to heat the place in the winter never crossed our minds. We both worked at Boeing and we had a 1933 Plymouth that could get us to work and it was summertime and the livin' was easy. Fish were jumping and our spirits were high.

I t was June and you could lay on the dock and watch the schools of perch swimming below and sometimes join them when you dared dive into the incredibly clear and cool water.

There were lots of cattails on the shoreline where huge bull frogs sometimes splashed noisily as you fished for big bass .

Few people lived there year round and you could get a great chicken dinner for two at Roses on Highway 99 a half mile away for less than a dollar. We got gas for our flivver at Pascoes' Richfield and they also sold us some canned foods and bread and milk. Not exactly a supermarket but they let you charge it if you paid them when you got your paycheck.

Sometimes we ate at the Blue Jay or The Green Parrot.

When the first hint of approaching autumn came in the form of falling leaves I continued to frolic and sometimes she called me a grasshopper and suggested that it might be a good idea to get some wood piled up in case it ever got cold. I agreed it was a good idea and would give it some thought. Later.

One day when she felt a nip in the air , I was down at the beach at Redondo with a buddy fishing off the dock and came home and found a huge long dead log in the front yard. She had taken the Plymouth and with the aid of a tire chain had dragged it home . She also had borrowed an axe from a distant neighbor and urged me to put it to work.

I did feel a little guilty and little by little whacked it to pieces. On cool nights I lit a fire in the kitchen stove . But mostly I figured we had our love to keep us warm. Sure, the roof leaked a little but the slanted floor worked well and the water on the hardwood floor just disappeared into the molding. What? Me worry?

One night the winds blew, the skies clabbered up and the snow fell, it was winter...Worst luck, the exposed pipes in the crawl space froze solid.

We froze to death and when it was daylight bundled up and worked our way in three inches of snow to a neighbors house about 200 yards away. They were really old people. Maybe 50.

They shook their heads in dismay, muttered some words about being prepared and took us in. For a week we were snowbound. But they gave this shameful grasshopper and his patient ant a place to stay.

The exposed pipes under our summer charmer had all frozen up and I spent many an hour in the dirt thawing them out with a blowtorch and replacing some sections of split pipe. On occasion a rat would scurry by but I got the miserable job done. I bought some wood from cutters who had knocked down some alder in the summer and we moved back into our honeymoon ice palace.

It was a long winter of disconnect. But a good hard lesson in life.

In the spring we moved up by the airport and eight years later, in 1948, I was back in Federal Way chugging along 99 selling advertising to people like C. Ralph Fleming, Lundberg's Grocery, and Redondo Heights Garage and driving a deluxe '28 DeSoto coupe with all leather interior and a radiator that leaked like a sieve.

In 1953 the ant and I started the Federal Way News.