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No Pickles! - The Ashley Anne Pickel Story
BY Patrick Gibney
No Pickles! I’ve been saying that to servers for as long as I can remember. Sometimes, they forget, and the food arrives with pickles on it. Other times, they put the pickles on the side, which is just as bad because of the smell and the juices. In fact, there used to be a burger joint in Fayetteville called Backyard Burger. Those assholes would put the pickles UNDER the meat patty. They’d get me every time doing that shit. But not all pickles smell bad or taste bad. Some pickles are smart, funny, loyal, loving, and love vaginas more than Peter loved The Lord. “Where would I find such a pickle?” you might ask. And the answer is right here at Paddy’s. Her name is Ashley Anne Pickel.
Originally from Melbourne, Florida, 39-year-old Ashley Pickel moved to the Fayetteville area when she was in the eighth grade, going on to graduate from Douglas Byrd High School. Pickel’s mom had more husbands than Elizabeth Taylor, producing a total of five kids. Pickel, the second oldest, is seventeen-plus years older than the younger kids. She admits to terrorizing them with blow darts for messing around with her extensive dildo collection. In her spare time, she spends a great deal of time gaming. Known by the moniker, “Blue Guffaw,” Pickel kicks ass and takes names in games like Red Dead Redemption and Elder Scrolls Online, but there’s much more to Ashley Anne Pickel than gaming and blow darts.
Pickel joined the Air Force in 2005, serving her country bravely before being “honorably discharged for being a homosexual” in 2007. But don’t feel sorry for her. She considers that to mean she is “governmentally gay,” so she wears it like a “badge of honor.” She then got into contracting in Afghanistan for three years where she worked her way up to Postmaster General. That experience left a mark on her. “Afghanistan is beautiful. I’d never seen The Milky Way so vividly as I did over there. The people are like people anywhere – both good and not so good, but they had courage that I’d never witnessed before, especially the ones who helped us. They knew they would be killed for it.”
After Afghanistan, Pickel got into restaurant management, a career that took her to Miami and Denver. From Denver, she moved to Compton (LA), to open a distribution center for Best Buy. She considers her five years with Best Buy as being pivotal in her career. She made a fantastic salary and learned so much. Eventually, in 2019, Pickel moved back to NC and bought a house. She came on board at Paddy’s as a mixologist in August of 2023, and she has done a fantastic job. Everyone loves Pickel for her vibrant and friendly personality, her talent, and her work ethic. So, what life advice would she give to the younger generation? “Once you know your worth, never, ever, settle for less.”
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