{"id":411,"date":"2018-06-14T21:04:38","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T21:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/?p=411"},"modified":"2020-07-20T00:21:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T00:21:13","slug":"singing-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/?p=411","title":{"rendered":"Sing a Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

An afternoon at sea sounded like a peaceful adventure, but the boys suggested otherwise. Due to the TT motorcycle races, ferries are filled to capacity compromising food service, toilet availability (say no more); further, airfares to Liverpool are less expensive. The boys said Liverpool could be done in one day, so I booked two nights. It’s been eight.<\/p>\n

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On the waterfront<\/p><\/div>\n

The first day opens to a drifting white on blue sky. I trace my map to the waterfront and Albert Docks — a tourist complex including The Beatles Story, The Tate and Liverpool Museums and Pier head’s ‘Three Graces’, part of Liverpool’s UNESCO World Heritage site.<\/p>\n

Admiring the harmonic blending of historic and modern architecture I hear a voice, “Lovely day, isn’t it?” A dark-haired woman in a floral dress is sitting on a park bench and smiling. This time, I engage with more than an affirmative. She’s having her ‘dinner’ (lunch break) and eating potato chips (I wonder: if they call french fries ‘chips’, then what do they call potato chips?). She points to the Mersey Ferry Building and says, “Tis a beautiful (and unusual) sunny day. Why don’t you take the ferry across the Mersey, you know, like the song?” She hums the melody. (I say),”What!!! I remember that song! Those are the words? That’s here? This is that river?!!!”\u00a0 Oh no, I’m near-shouting in<\/p>\n

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Three Graces<\/p><\/div>\n

mid-western twang. All these years I’ve been singing along: “Oh Mary,<\/p>\n

quite contrary”….the actual lyrics are: “So ferry ‘cross the Mersey”…<\/p>\n

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The Mersey Ferry Building<\/p><\/div>\n

This enlightening fact begins my magical<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Beatles<\/p><\/div>\n

mystery tour of Liverpool.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After boarding the ferry, I spy a small-framed older woman sitting solo, also eating potato chips (‘crisps’). “Pardon me, may I ask you a strange favor? I just found out the real words to that famous song, you know it…” and I proudly sing to her the chorus with the correct words. “Would you mind<\/p>\n

taking a video with me singing the song while we’re actually riding across the River Mersey?!” She is amused (and a little confused). “I don’t know how to work this,” she says she takes the phone from my hand. “And I don’t know how to sing!” We giggle together and I show her how to operate the contraption. Twas a glorious exchange! I like meeting folks this way. I say “No” to selfies and “Yes” to asking a (kind-looking) stranger soon-to-be acquaintance! VIDEO<\/a><\/p>\n

While waiting at the train station, my last morning in Liverpool, a station employee asked, “Dja like Liverpool, then?” “Oh yes. There’s so much…and I didn’t even do any Beatles stuff! (Although Sir Paul was in town!)<\/p>\n

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I Saw Him Standing There
(not)<\/p><\/div>\n

But I DID ride across the River Mersey.” I proceeded to tell him the story. He replied, “Oh, I got one bet-ah for ya. You know the singer Natalie Cole? She sings a song called, ‘I Miss You Like Crazy’. For years I sang along, ‘I’m missin’ my gravy’. And when I found out the words I was singing’ was wrong, I still kept singing me own cuz I loik’em bet-ah!”<\/p>\n

we’ve all got one, eh?<\/p>\n

\"\"

at club Jacaranda<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Life goes on day after day Hearts torn in every way<\/p>\n

So ferry, ‘cross the Mersey…”<\/p>\n

— Gerry and The Pacemakers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An afternoon at sea sounded like a peaceful adventure, but the boys suggested otherwise. Due to the TT motorcycle races, ferries are filled …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ireland-uk-europe-2018","tag-england","tag-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":64,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/2221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travelbeing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}