Well, here is a first.

Usually, my column this last week of January is all about the fact that I am headed to the annual Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention. I generally write about past conventions, what is going to go on this year, and give an update on any awards the Faribault County Register staff has won.

My column this week is still going to give an update on the convention, but for the first time for as long as I can remember, I am going to miss the convention.

This darn coronavirus is still hanging on. I still have symptoms and I still tested positive this past Monday.

So, the decision has been made; no convention for this editor.

My first convention was in 1971, if I recall correctly, with a second time in 1972.

Then, I took five years off, because I was publisher/editor of a weekly newspaper in North Dakota, so I went to the North Dakota Newspaper Association Convention instead.

But, in 1977 we moved back to Minnesota and my treks to the Minnesota convention started back up. To be perfectly honest, there might have been a convention I missed. Maybe I had some conflict, like a trip to warmer climates, or perhaps work was too busy to allow me to go.

I sure don’t remember that happening, but it might have.

I have to admit I loved going to the convention. As a young editor I went to the sessions and soaked up as much information as I could. I genuinely enjoyed the guest speakers, who ranged from politicians such as Hubert Humphrey and Spiro Agnew to famous Minnesotans, like Garrison Keillor and explorer Will Steger.

And, of course, Jesse Ventura.

I know, I have told this story before. But perhaps you don’t remember it.

It was 1999. I was president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association in 1998, which means I was still president at the January 1999 convention. The new president would be elected at the end of the convention.

The guest speaker at the annual banquet was going to be Minnesota’s newly elected governor, Jesse Ventura. As president, it was my job to introduce the new governor to a banquet room full of 650 newspaper folks. And, we all remember how Jesse hated the press and called them jackals…

As was typical with Gov. Ventura, he never had firmly committed to being the speaker at our banquet. He was late in arriving and the executive director of the MNA and myself were at the hotel entrance wondering if he would show up.

Eventually he did, and we tried to hustle him off to the banquet which was already well underway.

We had to pass by the hotel lounge area and two ladies there saw the governor and stopped our progress in order to talk to him. Maybe they wanted an autograph or perhaps a selfie with the governor (I wonder if selfies were actually a thing back in 1999?).

Anyway, we finally got the gov away from his admirers and off to the banquet, where I did introduce him to the assembled press. They greeted him warmly, because they were small town newspaper folks and not the jackals of the big city press. He gave a halfway decent speech, about his plans for his term of office.

Years later, after I became the editor at the Register in 2007, I told this story about me, Jesse and the two ladies (although I might not have referred to them as “ladies”) at the Register office one day.

Register publisher/general manager Lori Nauman turned pale and then laughed.

It turns out she, and former Register general manager Kelly Anderson were the two “ladies” who waylaid Jesse Ventura that day.

I know you might have heard that story before, but it remains one of my favorite “small world ain’t it” stories.

In full disclosure, Lori and I have slightly different versions of how that encounter actually went down.

I have lots of fond memories of going to the convention each year. There have been numerous good speakers and interesting, informative and thought-provoking sessions where I have learned a lot over the years.

And yes, we have won quite a few awards over the years at the Better Newspaper Contest. We did again this year, having been notified that we have won seven awards, some for individual staff members and some for the whole staff on different projects.

We don’t know exactly what we have won for, or what placement the awards are, but we will find out at the convention.

Well, I won’t.

The one thing that I will miss the most is not the speakers, the sessions or the awards. To be truthful, these days what I enjoy the most is visiting with old friends in the newspaper biz, some of whom I have known since I first started going to conventions back in 1971.

And since last year’s convention was done virtually, it has been quite some time since I last visited with these old friends in person.

Well, thanks for reading. And, stay tuned to the next week’s issue which will have the news about what awards the Register won this year.

I might have to read the paper myself to find out….