Staff Members at Parkette Drive-In Recall the Time When Billy Gillispie Pulled In

by:Kindsey Bernhard06/18/16

kindseybernhard

624 PDI 03 The Parkette Drive-In is located at 1230 E. New Circle Road in Lexington. The 1950s style drive-in diner has been around for over 60 years now. It has served many famous names including Guy Fieri and the lead singer to Smash Mouth. However, the most interesting story comes from former head coach Billy Gillispie when he pulled up on a night in 2009. The New Circle Circular recently spoke with long-time staff members about that night.
“Well, it was around 10pm on the day he was fired that he came screeching in,” tells Parkette Drive-In waitress Dolores Mulberry. “I went to take his order and he kept shouting ‘One for Madea Goes To Jail, please!’ We couldn’t make heads or tails outta what he was sayin’, but then we figured it out; he thought he was at the dog-gone drive-in movies. Dead giveaway was when he grabbed the cell phone outta my apron and put it on his dash. Poor thing, he thought it was the movie speaker.” “We tried to tell him that we were a diner, “ explained Earlene Baker, shift manager on duty that night, “and offered to bring him a Poor Boy, which is our world famous burger. But he got a little confused and started popping the collar on his leather coat saying, ‘Yeah, call me Pony Boy.’ We didn’t know what in the Sam Hill was going on. So, we just told him to stay gold and brought him our ‘Pony Keg Beer Cheese Burger’, which he scarfed down while looking over this shoulder and mumbling about Alan Cutler the whole time.” “He kept running his greasy fingers through his hair, too,” recalled Mulberry. “Really grossed us out. And while I love the Madea movies, I think we can all agree he should’ve been heading over to Movie Tavern to catch the 9:30 showing of ‘Miss March’ since that’s all he ever did anyway.” After complaining that the trailers were too long (referring to the menu board), Gillispie concluded the night by peeling away yelling, “Nothing gold can stay!” and proceeded to crash directly into the Peddler’s Mall. “It’s ironic he hit the Peddler’s Mall,” added Baker, “because after that DUI, he was gonna be riding a bike everywhere.”
 

Discuss This Article

Comments have moved.

Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.

KSBoard

2024-03-28