Something is happening this week that does not happen very often. And, no, I am not referring to the total solar eclipse which will be able to be seen in full along a track to the southeast of Minnesota.

No, I am referring to the fact that the official date for this week’s Faribault County Register is Monday, April 1. You can see that date on the top of this, and every page in the Register.

April 1. Famous for several things, but most recognizable as a day that folks play pranks on each other and then yell “April Fools!” when they reveal it was all a lie and fake and just made up.

For years the Register staff has attempted to make fools of its readers by putting in an April Fools story in the issue closest to the first day of April.

Larry Anderson, of Frost, claims to have been the one to first write an April Fools Day story for the Blue Earth newspaper, back before it was even called the Register.

That first one was probably pretty easy to get everyone to believe because it was never done before.

Not so true these days.

For two weeks or so I have been asked if we had our April Fools story written yet, or the topic picked out. Many folks are eagerly awaiting this edition to see what we did for this year.

Now I wonder if I should reveal that there is no April Fools story in the Register for 2024.

After years of creating one each year, we have decided enough is enough. Not only is it getting harder and harder to think of a good subject, the April Fools story has also gotten us into trouble, and, quite frankly, may have damaged our journalistic reputation of only printing stories that are true.

You know, there is a presidential candidate accusing all of us journalists of printing fake news all the time.

There was also that one time that our story was about something that the Blue Earth Chamber was going to do. An area news media reporter called the Chamber office and said he wanted to do a story about it.

The staff at the Chamber explained to him that the story was not true and was just an April Fools Day story.

He called me and was quite upset and questioned my journalistic ethics, among other things.

Anyway, there should not be too many upset people or accusations of running fake news in our pages, from now on.

I know there are those of you out there who will be disappointed. Many folks say they can hardly wait for the Register to arrive when it is the first of April, and search for the story that is the fake one.

Many of you will tell me which April Fools Day story from the past was your favorite.

For some it was the Guckeenland Amusement Park story. For others it was the Giant Pea Drop, (turning the old water tower into a giant pea). Some say the story they believed the most was the one about old time movie reels being found in the Avalon Theater before it was torn down.

My favorite is probably the one about Blue Earth Area and United South Central high schools being renamed Faribault County West and Faribault County East high schools.

Boy, did I hear from a lot of upset people about that one, until I told them it was a fake news story. They were still mad about it, because they had been fooled.

There was one about oil being discovered in the Kiester Hills, about a Winnebago black bear, and the Green Giant statue being sold to the city of Le Sueur.

People seemed to believe a recent one about the county being renamed from Faribault to Blue Earth.

And then there was my all time favorite April Fools Day story. Remember the one about the Preparation H company coming to Kiester to film a hemorrhoids commercial?

It was the best April Fools Day story ever, because it was absolutely true and just sounded like it was totally made up.

I loved it. I am not sure we could have ever topped it with a made up story we would have created.

So this is it. No more April Fools Day stories. It was fun while it lasted, and I hope everyone enjoyed them over the past 40 years or whatever it has been.

I know many people will miss them, but a whole lot of others are probably saying it is about time, and thought the stories were all basically stupid.

I guess it is possible that some future editor of the Faribault County Register will decide to resurrect the April Fools Day story tradition. But somehow, I doubt it.

So enjoy this April 1st edition of the Register with no April Fools Day story.

Or, is this Editor’s Notebook column my April Fools Day joke to you? If it is, does that mean there really is a fake news story in this week’s issue? Does that mean the editor is lying?

I’ll never tell.