BBC - Scotland on Film

Jacqueline Pearce from Torry, Aberdeen. Posted 16 Oct 2006.
Iwas born and brought up in Torry. I worked in the fish trade from the age of 8yrs. I used to work all of my school holidays. My wages were a fiver a week, which I gave to my ma. I started as a fish packer, then progressed to skinner then filleter. It was hard, freezing cold work especially in winter with only a hot water dip to stop your hands from getting numb. Sometimes we would stand in a basin of hot water to heat our feet. At teatime we would go to the bothy for a cup of tea and a rowie, it had to be from Aitkens Bakery. I remember when I was a bairn and my ma took me to Donnald Buchans fish house and I saw a fish as big as the fishhouse, so big it had to lay on the floor. My ma told me it was a Hallibut. These were the 1960's before the day's of overfishing. Lot's of happy memories of characters I worked with. It's sad to see the once thriving fishing industrey in such dire straits.

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