Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

At least three of the SWALK letters refer to bugs—the bugs that infested my father’s ship at Ardnadam and later, the house in Edinburgh. This “Bugs Saga” provides us another glimpse into the kind of relationship my mother and father had. To read the full version of the letters, check out SWALK (Interactive version).

Bugs Letter No. 1 from Ardnadam Pier

The first letter containing the first ever reference to bugs was sent around September 1943. My mother was living at Chesser Loan in Edinburgh with my 15-month old eldest brother, Sandy. On the other hand, my father was stationed at Ardnadam Pier, Sandbank, Holy Loch, where he was in charge of the ships, “Girl Ethel” and “Young John”.On page 2, my father talks about having the ‘ship’ fumigated: “We had the ship fumigated and I think all the bugs have died from want of breath.  Anyway I haven’t seen any since.”

Bugs Letter No. 2 from Chesser Loan

The “Bugs Saga” only got an update around late 1943 or early 1944. My angry and pregnant (with my second brother, Stuart) mother had written to my father again, who was still stationed at Ardnadam Pier. 

The first sentence sets the tone, “I received your terrible letter. I very nearly returned it to you to translate it into English.” This might seem to be a joke, but unlike my father (in the letters), my mother does not have much of a sense of humour. The sentence seems to be only partly humorous and partly serious.

My mother continues, “Well Alex, I killed my fifth bug today. I must say it is a rotten feeling after getting our house into perfect order. I blame you entirely. The last time you came home was the second time without changing yourself. Not much of a complement to me. You are getting very careless about your appearance. It is not as if you hadn’t got clean clothes. “I know I am always clean when you come home.” She is pretty blunt here. She implies that my father is an illiterate who is too lazy to wash himself. In other words, he is like an unkempt unruly kid!

However, at the end of the letter, she manages to include some warmth in her words, but of course, still ending it with her firmness. She says, “Please darling, don’t think I’m in an aggravating mood, I am not. So when you are coming home, change yourself [with] clean clothes you are bringing with you. And please take a little pride in yourself. I am just saying these things because I love you so. You can see that darling, can’t you? If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t bother about you. But as things are, darling, I try in my own way to take care of you and I want to see results.”

Bugs Letter No. 3 from Ardnadam Pier

In this third letter, my father wrote back to my mother, “I received your very ‘interesting’ letter with no envelope as requested. I will endeavour to have a good bath in sulphuric acid, have a powder bath in ‘Keatings’, and dry myself off with disinfectant.

“But seriously Darling, I’m very sorry about the bugs. I hope there won’t be any recurrence of it, and that you have exterminated them. I suppose you’re quite sure they are bugs – little brown round things with a lot of legs! They’ve all been exterminated out of the ship.”

He continues, “Well darling I quite appreciate the fact that one should keep oneself in a **** clean state and I’m trying to carry out all your instructions. You didn’t send very many collars, but I’m saving a clean one to come home with. The only redeeming factor about your letter is the postscript at the end. That’s two nasty letters I’ve had. Anymore and I’ll get an annulment!“

Obviously, my father doesn’t seem very perturbed by my mother’s accusations about his ‘uncleanliness’. He treats it as a joke, and promises to carry out her instructions and bathe in sulphuric acid! He even jokingly comments that he will ask for an annulment if he receives any more “nasty” letters!

It was probably no easy matter keeping clean and smart when you were living on an old, bug-ridden ex-fishing boat that had been requisitioned by the navy. Washroom and laundry facilities were probably extremely limited. Moreover, this was the time when ‘men were men’. Too much attention to personal care was probably considered effeminate. Thus, men didn’t use ‘perfume’ like today’s ‘men’. If anything they wore aftershave, which stung your skin to remind you of the fact that you were a man. There were only one or two products on the market, such as Old Spice. Moreover, the suits and uniforms of men were not ‘washed’ but dry-cleaned. Those were expensive, and not done frequently.