DALLAS, Texas — On a Friday afternoon, Tommy Donahue is busy. Beers from boxes pass from his hands into steel troughs while classic rock in the bar he manages blares.
For Donahue, Saturday is "D-Day." For the first time since March 2019, Dallas will see a St. Paddy's Day parade.
The previous two years, the parade has been nixed due to COVID-19. It was a sad reality for a beloved event that's been celebrated since 1979 in Big D.
"It's just the biggest day of the year," Donahue said. "I think tomorrow is going to be absolutely crazy."
Donahue is the general manager for Milo Butterfingers. The bar is nestled right near the parade's finish line.
In March of 2020, WFAA sat down with Donahue (the longest-serving board member for the Greenville Avenue Area Business Association) to get his reaction regarding the parade's cancelation due to COVID.
The interview never aired. Within hours of talking with WFAA, the cancellation of a parade was yesterday's news.
That night, the NBA announced it would be suspending its season and air travel would be suspended from Europe.
Still, it feels like the parade was the first COVID domino to fall for us Dallasites.
"It was heartbreaking to have the rug pulled out from under us," Donahue said. "Two days later, they shut everything down completely, and then we were shut down for five months."
We showed Donahue a photo of me talking to him that day in his bar and asked him what he would tell his former self at that time.
"Wow. Don't sweat the little things," Donahue said. "Losing the parade was a little thing. But having your business shut down like that for five months and almost losing your business -- that's a big deal."
Donahue has been very influential with the Greenville Avenue Area Business Association, helping plan parades since he witnessed the first one in 1979.
He hasn't missed a parade since then.
"I was a college kid, right? And I saw this going on, and I thought that it could be so much bigger!" Donahue said.
Now that the parade is back, Donahue told WFAA that things feel normal once again -- at least for him.
"We thought that cancellation was just going to be a blip, and it'd be a couple of weeks, and we'd get back on our feet and recoup what we lost that weekend," Donahue said. "It was a lot worse than that."
Donahue said the parade's finish line would have a different meaning this year.
Maybe, hopefully, things will stay this way.
"I think this is kind of the coming out party for us," Donahue said.
"I will sit down tomorrow night with a big smile on my face, knowing that we pulled it off and that we're back."