The paper will describe the author's personal memories of the early days of the development of the AWIPS system. It will discuss the origin of the program in AFOS, the roadblocks that were erected by the government bureaucracy, the initial design concepts and the difficulties in achieving those design goals. The presentation will describe the process established to 'shadow' the formal development process and the decision processes used in the program evolution. The paper will describe the operational philosophy that formed the basis of the AWIPS design, and describe the difficulties in getting that concept accepted by the operational forecasters. The author will provide his own opinion as to the errors that were made in the early phases of the program and suggest ways to prevent such problems in the future.