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once (the junks still slipping towards their moorings), with about ten people to carry it up the hillside and spread it out to dry. No time was lost. On boats and shore washing and tooth-cleaning had probably already been done, breakfast was being cooked ready for the returning net spreaders — rice and fish as usual.
The first nylon nets were available in 1963. From then on that particular chore was remarkably quickly done away with. Mechanisation and the move ashore brought further changes in work patterns too, but the general outlines of daily life were basically the same in 1970 as they had been in the earlier period. One striking difference, however, applied to the children. In 1950, when all the fishermen's families lived on their boats, the child population on shore displayed a daily ebb and flow. At about 9.30 or 10.00 a.m. on any fine day the boat children used to swarm ashore, elders in charge, often with their youngest siblings on their backs. And there they used to play for most of the day. The Hakka (land) children all went to school, but only two or three boat children — all boys — joined them from time to time. The new school that was opened in 1958 was a very different matter. Designated a Fishermen's Children's School it was accepted by the fishermen from the start. Not only sons but daughters too were almost all immediately enrolled. The play groups still existed, but for most of the day they were younger and in any case most of their members, like the schoolchildren, now lived ashore. The daily ebb and flow was a thing of the past.
For adults the changes were rather less obvious. Returning night-time fishermen still slept for a good part of the day, but usually only in snatches for, though fewer than they had been, a purse-seiner's day-time jobs were still numerous enough. Nets required less back-breaking work now that they no longer had to be dried daily or dyed monthly, and they lasted longer without damage, but they still needed daily inspection and quite frequent mending; sail and rope-making, important though intermittent tasks in 1950, were no longer significant, but boats still had to be careened for overhaul and, though less frequently, for breaming, and engines had to be checked over and maintained. Above all, the salting, drying and sorting of fish remained a constant chore, demanding a good deal of hard, uncomfortable work in the hot
49
once (the junks still slipping towards their moorings), with about ten people to carry it up the hillside and spread it out to dry. No time was lost. On boats and shore washing and tooth-cleaning had probably already been done, breakfast was being cooked ready for the returning net spreaders — rice and fish as usual.
The first nylon nets were available in 1963. From then on that particular chore was remarkably quickly done away with. Mech- anisation and the move ashore brought further changes in work patterns too, but the general outlines of daily life were basicly the same in 1970 as they had been in the earlier period. One striking difference, however, applied to the children. In 1950, when all the fishermen's families lived on their boats, the child popula- tion on shore displayed a daily ebb and flow. At about 9.30 or 10.00a.m. on any fine day the boat children used to swarm ashore, elders in charge, often with their youngest siblings on their backs. And there they used to play for most of the day. The Hakka (land) children all went to school, but only two or three boat children — all boys — joined them from time to time. The new school that was opened in 1958 was a very different matter. Designated a Fishermen's Childrens' School it was accepted by the fishermen from the start." Not only sons but daughters too were almost all immediately enrolled. The play groups still existed, but for most of the day they were younger and in any case most of their members, like the schoolchildren, now lived ashore. The daily ebb and flow was a thing of the past.
For adults the changes were rather less obvious. Returning night-time fishermen still slept for a good part of the day, but usually only in snatches for, though fewer than they had been, a purse-seiner's day-time jobs were still numerous enough. Nets required less back-breaking work now that they no longer had to be dried daily or dyed monthly, and they lasted longer without damage, but they still needed daily inspection and quite frequent mending; sail and rope-making, important though intermittent tasks in 1950, were no longer significant, but boats still had to be careened for overhaul and, though less frequently, for breaming, and engines had to be checked over and maintained. Above all, the salting, drying and sorting of fish remained a constant chore, demanding a good deal of hard, uncomfortable work in the hot
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