Parade day a grand time for 'Miss Duffy'

If anyone enjoyed Sunday's 12th annual Beach Bistro St. Patrick's Day Parade on Holmes Beach more than Pat Geyer, I'd have loved to see them.

OK, maybe Anne Phillips, who celebrated hitting the Big 5-0 at Duffy's Tavern Sunday, too.

But Pat "Miss Duffy" Geyer had it down during the parade. And after.

Befitting her stature as beloved matriarch of the Duffy's Tavern family, Pat was driven in the parade by Rick Lewis aboard one of his pedicabs --- a three-wheeled bike with a bench seat in back.

Despite repeated complications from a knee replacement, the 79-years young former city commissioner was in her element, waving to throngs of parade bystanders all along Gulf Drive from the Wachovia Bank starting point to the City of Anna Maria border.

Then when Rick and Pat were done parading, they pulled over at the finish line to watch the rest of the parade go by.

Virtually everyone saluted her as their own float went by:
"Pat, hey Pat!" "Miss Duffy! Miss Duffy!"

Their cries were usually followed by a hail of beads, too.

When the parade was over at last, Rick pedaled Pat back to Duffy's, calling out to amused bystanders and motorists, "We're going to Duffy's! We're going to Duffy's!"

So was the City of Dunedin Pipe Band, a parade regular for years that had yet to make a post-parade stop at Duffy's.

Not only did they make a smashing entrance, playing as they marched through the crowded tavern, but they gave a mini-concert later, with two drummers and two bagpipers before the table where Pat sat.

They got the whole place on its feet, people joyously clapping along in rhythm.

Pat enjoyed every second, every sound of the bagpipers.

"You never know what's going to happen at Duffy's," she said.

Especially on the same day as the St. Patrick's Day Parade.