My Sunday column

My baby girl turned 4 on Friday.
She is ecstatic. Me? Not so much.
Rowan seems to think she’s now old enough to drive a car and smoke cigars and get her own credit card.
Me? I want it all to just slow down.
I don’t want to lose the little girl who swells up with pride when she uses a new word for mommy and daddy.
I don’t want to lose the little girl who thinks the most fun thing in the world is to “rassle” — not wrestle — her old man on the bed, pounding each other with pillows.
I don’t want to lose the little girl who squeals with delight when Dad turns on a Tweety Bird and Sylvester cartoon, or dishes out popsicles or tells her a made-up-on-the-spot story about Lucy the Giraffe or the “Adventures of the Four Brave Girls.”
It’s going too fast.
A lot of dads have felt that way and most seem to have survived the inevitable transition. That should make me feel better. I guess.
Judge Jack Partain once told me what a thrill it was to have a baby girl. He was right. What he didn’t tell me is that there comes a day when maybe Dad is NOT the “Coolest Person in Town” anymore.
Another friend told me a story about taking his daughter to Georgia to begin her freshman year. It was smooth sailing all day, until he returned home and looked at his baby girl’s empty bedroom.
Boom.
The tears flowed.
I’ve still got some time left as the Coolest Person in Town. But the clock is ticking and I know it.
That said, I am the proudest father in the world.
Four years ago the doctor held a dangling, screaming, red-faced brat up and let me look her over.
I fell instantly, madly, head-over-heels in love with that bellowing creature.
“You’re not going to believe how beautiful she is,” I told my wife, barely able to speak.
Four years later, she still has that effect on me.
---
You should have received our annual Progress edition in your paper on Friday, At 72-pages, it will likely be the biggest special section we produce this year
Times are tough for a lot of our advertisers and this Progress is smaller than issues of the past. However, I still think there’s plenty of good reading in there.
In some ways we produced a more traditional Progress this year, focusing more on business, government and the economy than in the last few years.
We also asked several government, business and civic leaders to contribute guest columns. They came through and their efforts added immeasurably to the final product.
If you didn’t get a paper on Friday and would like to check out Progress, please come by our office on Thornton Avenue.
Issues are available for only 50 cents.
---
The Forum continues to draw a lot of interest from readers. People are not shy about flagging me down on the street and telling me what they think. I appreciate the input
Most folks seems to like the Forum, or at least most folks who speak up do.
I like it myself, though it is a very time-consuming and sometimes frustrating feature to put together every day.
The Forum offers an easy way for people to have their say on just about any matter they want to comment on. We’ve got a few common sense rules, but for the most part it’s a catch-as-catch-can proposition.
Some callers grow frustrated when their comments don’t get posted. Why isn’t everything published? Here are the top reasons:
1. Caller didn’t get to the point
2. Caller mumbled or was hard to understand.
3. Caller called repeatedly on the same day.
4. Caller was unacceptably rude or used offensive language.
5. I don’t like the cut of your jib.
OK, just kidding about No. 5.
Personally, I don’t care what your views are, where you are from, where you went to school, who you voted for, who you are related to or how much money you have in the bank.
Keep it clean. Stay on point.
See you in the funny papers.



Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen.