Tacoma, WA (October 31, 2001) - When Seattle Mariners fans camped out to get playoff tickets, that was a line.

But when swarms of people stood in line and waited in their cars for hours Tuesday morning to buy doughnuts from the first Washington Krispy Kreme, in Issaquah, that was more than a line - that was an event.

"I lined up for Pink Floyd tickets in 1979 and Neil Diamond tickets for my wife in the 1980s, but I have never lined up for doughnuts," said Tony Morehead, 43, of Maple Valley, who started collecting articles about Krispy Kreme last year, when the company announced it was coming to Washington.

The Issaquah store is the first of seven planned for Western Washington. The first Krispy Kreme opened in Winston-Salem, N.C., 64 years ago. The company has 195 stores in 31 states.

All seven Western Washington stores will be developed by Gerard Centioli, president and CEO of Kreme Works, LLC. Centioli said the next one probably will be in Seattle, and a Tacoma store is in the works.

The stores cost $750,000 each and franchisers are required to own a chain of them.

Krispy Kreme offers 15 varieties of doughnuts - the original is most popular - as well as fruit juices, milk, coffee and

bottled water. An estimated 5 million Krispy Kreme doughnuts are made each day.

Franchise ownership runs in the Centioli family. Centioli's father was the seventh franchiser in the country to own a Kentucky Fried Chicken, which he introduced to the Northwest.

Krispy Kreme, like Kentucky Fried Chicken at its inception, has a cult following. Fans include everyone from actress Julia Roberts to everyday people like Morehead.

Morehead got in line 3 1/2 hours before the store opened at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. He took the day off from his job at Horizon Airlines, bought 12 dozen doughnuts and said he was going to give them to friends, his wife's employees and his son, Giovanni, 10, and his classmates.

"I'm going to stipulate that they pass out the doughnuts after school," Morehead said.

Nate Frickel of Kirkland was the first customer when the neon "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign came on. He showed up 12 hours early to get his doughnut fix. Wearing a backpack filled with bottled water and Energy Bars, Frickel donned a black knit cap and endured the cold, the TV cameras and the crowds, just to get six boxes.

"It was absolutely worth it," said a slightly dazed but happy Frickel, 25.

"I had my first Krispy Kreme doughnut in Chicago, and I have been hooked ever since," he said.

As Frickel left with his melt-in-your-mouth doughnuts - presumably to share with his wife, who'd brought him dinner overnight but stayed in bed Tuesday morning - Libby Buckler and Heather Henningsen purchased four dozen.

The two 13-year-olds from Issaquah had been in line for 10 hours.

Dressed in pajama party attire - Henningsen wore bright green Grinch shoes - the two said they bypassed a good night's sleep for a spot in line.

They had to go to class at Beaver Lake Middle school two hours later.

But the gooey goodies were not intended for their classmates.

"These are for my parents," Buckler said.

Seattle Pacific University student Joey Tadie, 18, and about a half-dozen of his friends wore self-decorated shirts to commemorate the event.

Written in permanent marker, the phrase: "Will work for doughnuts" blazed across the front of Tadie's tank top.

"We're a bunch of crazy college kids, and we didn't have anything else to do," said Tadie's friend, Blake Pusztai, 18.

Tadie added that the doughnuts would help him stay awake during his 2 1/2-hour "Heritage of Europe" class later that morning.

And what's a doughnut shop without cops? But forget the stereotype.

Issaquah police Cmdr. Chris Felstad and officers from Washington State Patrol directed the six lanes of traffic headed for the drive- through, and Felstad didn't eat a single doughnut.

"I gave up eating sugar five years ago," he said.