Why’d it have to be Jock’s?

Whenever you grab a seat at a bar, you never know who’s going to take the seat next to you. Thanks to the close quarters, you never know what you are going to over hear. The bar in this story is Jock Lindsay’s Hanger Bar in Disney Springs. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. The volume and the subject being discussed here made it impossible for me to close my ears. Two men took the seats next to me. They were killing time, waiting for the rest of their friends to join them and almost desperate to appear deep into the beer scene. After finally settling on a beer flight, they noticed the hullabaloo over the gentleman leaving the birthday celebration set up in The Reggie, a docked boat on the side of the porch. As it happens, the man in question was Fred Sorenson, aka Jock Lindsay himself. The man sitting next to me leaned in and asked the bartender who the older gentleman was.

I might as well have been listening to the exchange between Lucy and Schroeder in The Peanuts Christmas Special, just exchange Jock Lindsay for Jingle Bells. This particular conversation ended with, “Oh, well. I am sure I would know him if I saw it. The movies are cult classics, but I mean, they weren’t that good.” Lucky for me, the seats at Jock Lindsay’s bar have backs on them. Otherwise, I probably would have fallen off mine. If that had happened, I would have missed the nervous verbal jabs that followed. He lamented that the bartender probably had to deal with a whole bunch of guys coming into the bar who were fans of Indiana Jones. He painted a quick picture of a horde of bespectacled fanboys rushing the bartender, expecting her to know all about the films.

Insert the loud peel of a record scratching.

With his portrait hitting close to home, my knee jerk reaction was to squirm in my seat. That lasted all of a minute so my brain could pick up and process everything I had overheard.

First off, was it really necessary to take that kind of dig at nerds? What did we ever do to you? Jeez.

Second, why do you think only men would flock here to revel in the extension of the Indiana Jones universe? Granted, it would be a natural assumption to make seeing as the Indiana Jones films are action adventures with a male protagonist. You know what happens when you assume though.

The character’s duality is exceptionally accessible to female audiences. Indy embodies both the cloistered and unsure professor and the swashbuckling cad. During the opening exposition in Raiders, we watch him switch from Indiana to the stuffy professor and back again with only the scrolling map to cleanse our palettes. In a world where women are so often expected to be both demure and a sex kitten simultaneously, his successful balancing act is a beacon of hope even if it is fiction.

Dr. Jones himself isn’t the only draw for women. Marion Ravenwood and, to a lesser extent, Elsa Schneider offer female audiences an alternative to the classic heroine. Yes, they are beautiful. These women aren’t defined solely on looks. They are intelligent, capable women who partner with Jones rather than tag along in his wake.

Third, Disney themed the bar to pay homage to Indiana Jones, so why wouldn’t fans pick this bar over all the others in Disney Springs? Ok. They opted not to go for the blunt reference, which I think was probably for the best. Don’t get me wrong, Club Obi-Wan would be fantastic, but Star Wars fans might be a little bummed. After being clued in though, either by menu items like The Scottish Professor or by someone pointing out any number of clues hidden within the bar itself, I would think it would be natural to assume many patrons came in because they like the movies. So, fair warning gentlemen, there’s this place called Galaxy’s Edge opening up soon, if you want to avoid fanboys and girls, I’d steer clear if I were you.

And finally, why are you using words you clearly don’t know the meaning of? Cult classics are movies that didn’t do well at the box office but ended up finding an audience long after the initial release. Let’s take The Wizard of Oz. You read that right. Many would call it a quintessential family movie not to be missed. A genuine classic. Everyone has seen The Wizard of Oz, right? But that wasn’t the case when it was released. It didn’t make back the money spent on production. Decades passed before the investment was recouped. Television sets rescued our beloved Wizard from obscurity and turned it into a cult classic. As for the Indiana Jones films, all of them are in the top 150 top grossing films of all time adjusted for inflation. This excludes all of these films, even Crystal Skull, from being cult classics. Thank you very much.

It didn’t take long for the gentlemen to lose interest in Fred Sorenson, nerds, and even their drinks. The inspiration had left as quickly as it had come. They drifted away on a mission to hit all of the best bars in Disney Springs. The stools did not stay empty for too long, though. A couple approached the seats and claimed them. One of them cos-playing as Indiana Jones.

X marks the spot.