(Post 2 of 2)

What should I remember about the life of a herring girl? The fun after hours.

Birna Björnsdóttir grabbed my shoulder and said, “It was fun to be young and to work a lot. You’d go home, change, put on a bit of make up and go to a ball every night. Sometimes, men would come into the hall from a boat and yell “Herring!” So you’d go home, change and run back to the harbour to start work.” When did they sleep? “In winter.”