Watching an item on TV about spontaneous choirs on trains triggered a memory of waiting on the quayside in North Shields for a ferry to Scandinavia- probably Esbjerg, when there used to be a ferry service between Newcastle and Denmark.
I must have been about six, and we were on our way to Norway for a holiday. McDad and Bruv both had red hair, so the idea was that we went somewhere where their skin would not burn.
Embarkment must have been delayed, because the whole crowd of passengers waiting to get on to the ferry erupted into a version of 'Why Are We Waiting' and kept singing it until we were allowed to board.
I was astonished. I had never heard so many people singing at once before, not even in church. It was all done in good spirits, I'd say in quite a Geordie way if there is such a thing: good-natured exasperation. I'm not sure if it was that that got us on to the ship, but we did eventually manage to board and we had a lovely holiday in Oslo and Bergen!
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