Helping with the big surprise at the Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention. Left to right are grandson Jake, daughter Katy, wife Pam, ye olde editor with the Half Century Club award, daughter-in-law Karmen and son Nick.

I received two heart stopping shocks last week, just two days apart from each other.

And, when you have had a heart attack and are now on heart medicine, getting a heart stopping shock is maybe not such a good thing. Getting a second one two days later, well, I’m surprised I survived.

Here is the story.

The first shock you might have surmised, especially if you read Lill Robinson’s Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce Focus column in last week’s Faribault County Register.

On Tuesday, Jan. 24, I went to the Blue Earth Kiwanis Club meeting, which I tend to do on most Tuesdays. There were three visitors there.

Lill Robinson, Elloyce Queensland and Blue Earth Chamber executive director Shellie Poetter. None of the three are Kiwanis members, although maybe they should be. Elloyce’s husband, Ken, was a very dedicated Kiwanis member, especially after he had retired.

But I digress.

I briefly wondered why the three were there, but I just thought maybe they had something to do with the guest speaker and really did not give it much thought.

I was a bit surprised when they said they were there to announce the Chamber’s Community Service Award winner for this year.

Good, I thought to myself, because I always want to know who it is – along with the identity of the Business of the Year and the Rising Star Business of the Year – so that we can start scheduling interview times to do a story about all three.

I was truly stunned when they said it was me. Ask anyone who was there, the shock on my face must have been monumental. Those who know me know it takes a lot to render me speechless. But this did. And when I regained my ability to speak I am sure I was basically incoherent.

I was pretty sure it was either a practical joke or else someone had tampered with the ballot box. Or, they had run out of people to give the award to.

After recovering from the initial shock, I realized that it is quite an honor and I am indeed very humbled by it.

Now I just have to decide if I should write the story or let one of the two reporters do it.

Just two days later, on Jan. 26, I was at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s Annual Convention and Better Newspaper Contest Awards Banquet in the Twin Cities.

As you can see elsewhere in this issue, the Register was honored with seven awards in the contest.

We won a couple of awards for writing, an award for our photography, three awards for our advertisements, and one more for our Our Heroes magazine.

While I am very appreciative that two awards were for my work, I would have liked to have gotten a couple more for our other staff members’ work. I really thought we entered some very remarkable items ­- both for stories and photos.

But, this contest is very competitive.

Minnesota newspapers are doing some incredible work, in writing, photography, layout and design.

So I am happy and proud that our excellent staff at the Register was recognized and awarded for all of our hard work. It feels good, just like it does when someone says they really liked that article or column or photo in this week’s edition.

That means a lot too. Maybe just as much, coming from our readers who support us every week.

Getting those seven awards was not what shocked me, however.

It happened at the Thursday luncheon at the convention, where Dave St. Peter of the Twins and former Twins star Dan Gladden were going to speak.

I was a little delayed getting into the banquet hall because an MNA staffer caught me and talked to me for a while. I learned later he had been instructed to waylay me and keep me from going into the lunch.

Eventually Register publisher Lori Nauman and I went into the hall. She said her husband, Jim, was saving us a spot. We saw him standing by a table up front, waving. He is hard to miss.

We went to the table and I saw the backs of several other people at the table. As I walked up, I saw my wife, Pam, which was a surprise because she was not going to the luncheon (not caring about sports or the Twins).

As I sat down I went into shock when I saw that the other people at the table were my grandson, Jake, son Nick, daughter-in-law Karmen and daughter Katy.

I was totally stunned and said something like, “What the heck are you guys doing here?” They said they were there for the program. And they didn’t mean the Twins speakers.

I finally got another big shock to learn I was being given an award for having been in the newspaper business for 50 years.

The shock was not that I was just realizing that I qualified for the Half Century Award. I know full well I have been in the business for 50 years – and even longer if you count being a paper boy in high school and working on two different college newspapers.

The shock was that I was getting the award in just a few minutes. Everyone else who has ever been inducted into the MNA Half Century Club over the years has known that this was going to happen at a lunch at the convention.

Except for me. I had no clue. Nobody had told me.

It seems that three women in my life - my wife, Pam, my boss Lori, and Lisa Hills executive director of the MNA – teamed up over the last three months or so to plan this all out and surprise me.

They didn’t surprise me. They shocked me. I was stunned for the second time in two days time.

Once again, I was rendered speechless. Luckily I recovered enough that just a few minutes later I was able to accept the award and give a little speech.

Don’t ask me what I said because I have no recollection whatsoever what I did say.

But, I am sure it was awesome. At least in my mind, anyway.

If you want to see a photo of me accepting the award and giving the speech I have no recollection of, it is on page 3.

My long-time friend in the newspaper business, Rolly Bergman, presented the award. Rolly is also a past president of the MNA and is also a member of the Half Century Club ­- and he, too, continues to work in the business.

The picture at left is of the crowd at the Awards Banquet. If you look hard, on the far left, in the back, is me with my arms up.

So much for humility.